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HAVING BEEN lambasted in two official reports for the banking and regulatory failures that contributed to the collapse of the Celtic Tiger, Ministers have little appetite for further flagellation. But the National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA) at NUI Maynooth has called for an independent inquiry into the role of Government and local authorities in promoting unsustainable property development through tax incentives, excessive rezoning and reckless planning. It also questions the role of Nama and the treatment of “ghost estates”.

The basic causes of the property crash are well known: greed, speculation and excessive lending. But as NIRSP director Rob Kitchin points out, without rezoning and planning permissions, construction could not have taken place, no matter how much banks were prepared to lend. A “litany of systemic failures” by Government and local authorities led to a dramatic oversupply of housing and Ireland has to learn from past mistakes if the property market is to recover.