Frank McDonald, of the Irish Times, shares with readers of the Daily Telegraph tomorrow some of the “sad and salutory” lessons Ireland’s relaxed planning laws have forced upon us. Including…

The knock-on effects of liberal planning policies over several decades, codified by the Sustainable Rural Housing Guidelines (2005), have been ruinous not just for the countryside, but also for towns and villages; as residential development spreads outwards, many are losing population rather than being reinforced..

This imbalance in Ireland became even more pronounced during the “Celtic Tiger” boom, with suburban-style housing estates being tacked on to towns and villages as well as being built in the middle of nowhere, as more and more land was re-zoned for residential development – at the behest of farmers and other landowners greedy for rich pickings.

The farmers also did very well from selling off land, at hugely inflated prices, for inter-urban motorways that became the sinews of sprawl because they enabled so many people to live in rural areas and commute to work by car. Notoriously, Dublin’s commuter belt now extends to 100 kilometres – roughly on a par with Los Angeles.

Eventually, housing output reached a peak of 90,000 new homes per year – far more than Britain’s, despite the huge difference in population (4.5 million versus 60 million). Local councils also behaved recklessly by zoning more than 105,600 acres for residential development between 2000 and 2010 – enough to accommodate 1.5 million new houses or apartments. It transpired that only 29,660 acres were needed to meet demand throughout the republic over the decade.

Jebus.