All major cities, especially Dublin, have undergone rapid expansion in the past five years. All have seen explosive growth in population, employment and business investment, which has been broadly welcomed. However, at the same time, we must recognise that such explosive growth has been accompanied by a new set of difficulties, including excess demand for housing and public services with traffic congestion. This, in turn, has meant that people's quality of life has not improved at the same rate as their incomes and, in some instances, not at all.