Planning for a better Ireland: Trusting in the wisdom of crowds
In 2018, the Irish government published the National Planning Framework (NPF) as part of Project Ireland 2040. As the Irish economy emerged from a decade of economic recession, these planning documents were seen as timely. The vision set forth was “based on a set of values that will ensure Ireland’s long term economic, environmental and social progress for all parts of our country”. A glossy new plan, for a new Ireland, that was still facing the same old problem, unbalanced growth. In the same way that the Buchanan Report did in the 1960s and the National Spatial Strategy did in the early 2000s, the NPF attempted to grapple with the reality that growth in Ireland tends to be urban and that the difference in the wealth of Irish regions is widening.