Will we never learn? Five years ago, a scheme of tax incentives was introduced with the aim of re-invigorating 14 "jaded" seaside resorts. Instead, in most cases, it has wreaked havoc, with clusters of holiday homes sprawled across the landscape, turning these places into over-heated slums.

Now, just as that dubious scheme has done its worst - and with no proper audit of the environmental, social and economic consequences - the focus has shifted to the Upper Shannon region, where another misguided initiative to encourage rural renewal looks set to produce similar effects.

The issues associated with such State-sponsored folly were ventilated last weekend at the Irish Planning Institute's annual conference in Westport, Co Mayo. Not everyone would see it as folly, of course - notably Enda Kenny, the local Fine Gael TD, who pointed to the success of Westport itself.

Mr Kenny was the Minister of Tourism who introduced the seaside resorts "pilot scheme" in 1995, in partnership with Ruairi Quinn, then Minister for Finance. Originally meant to run for three years, it was extended twice by the present Government and finally expired at the end of last year.

But though few would dispute his verdict that the tax scheme had turned Westport from "a good town into a great town", with an extraordinary range of leisure facilities and the Quay, in particular, transformed almost beyond recognition, even it has experienced some of the downsides.

Westlands, a large housing estate on the outskirts of Westport, is now a ghost town for much of the year because all but a few of its fairly standard suburban houses were snapped up by investors seeking tax shelters under the seaside resorts scheme. Not for nothing is it known locally as "Wastelands".

Brian Quinn, director of Mayo Naturally, the county's tourism promotion body, who owns one of the houses himself, produced data showing that the number of holiday homes in Westport had increased by a staggering 900 per cent since 1994, fuelled by the lucrative tax incentives available.

A smaller scheme of neo-traditional terraced houses is marketed under the name Harbour View, though none of the units has a view of the sea; according to Mr Quinn, one of them is pre-booked for just two weeks this summer. Others are plonked in fields with little or no effort at landscaping. Even though the impact of the scheme has been so poorly tracked, it is clear that the bulk of new investment went into holiday homes rather than the other projects it was supposed to encourage - hotels, guest houses, B& Bs, bars, restaurants, shops, crafts outlets, adventure centres and all-weather leisure facilities.

Achill still has the same poor range of one-star hotels, though parts of the island are now littered with clusters of holiday homes. Indeed, throughout the designated resorts, at least 5,000 units - and probably a lot more - have been provided, but very little in the way of new facilities to upgrade the "tourism product".

Altogether, the scheme levered 55 hotels, 20 guesthouses, 103 B&Bs, 99 retail units, 52 restaurants or cafes, 41 licensed premises, 15 leisure or sports facilities, 14 entertainment centres, five tourist information offices, four crafts outlets, two adventure centres, one language school and not a single marina or breakwater.

Surveys conducted by Mayo Naturally found a sizeable number of tourists complaining about the lack of facilities while, at the same time, strongly expressing the view that Ireland's landscape was its most important asset and that it needed to be protected against inappropriate development. Mr Quinn queried whether grouping tourists into housing estates, where they only meet other tourists, was the way to go. "We need to meet the expectations of our visitors, particularly from Europe." And while greed was a great motivator, it needed to be controlled. "If we make mistakes, we should admit it."

One of the few good examples he cited is a pair of holiday homes designed by Paul Keogh Architects for an elevated site near Old Head and Louisburgh. Set at right angles to each other, they sit comfortably in the landscape and the architectural treatment is so restrained that some of the locals have been shocked by it.

According to Paul Keogh, the idea was to make a composition that would take advantage of a south-facing orientation and spectacular views over Clew Bay, without being "showy". The design, in its use of gables, chimneys and asymmetrical windows, was also a modern reinterpretation of the rural vernacular.

But irrespective of design issues, the output of so many holiday homes in Westport, Achill and the other designated seaside resorts has eaten up a land bank that would otherwise have been available to meet housing demand. In that respect, it represents a quite breathtaking misapplication of re sources.

BUT it is unlikely that this experience will have any impact in guiding development in the Upper Shannon region, where all of counties Leitrim and Longford and parts of Cavan, Sligo and Roscommon have been designated under the new Rural Renewal tax incentive scheme, running until the end of 2002.

Donal Mac An Bheatha, planning officer with Longford County Council, told the IPI conference in Westport that the scheme, which is designed to prevent these areas from "dying on their feet" had resulted in a 25 per cent increase in the number of planning applications since last July. In Longford, where "every blade of grass" is designated, housing output is set to increase by 500 per cent from 300 to 1,500 units per year - much of it designed to cater for long-distance Dublin commuters. But there is also pressure for large houses on scenic sites, with views over Lough Allen and Lough Gowna.

And with floor areas of up to 2,240 sq ft permitted by the incentives, it is hardly surprising that some people are selling out of urban areas to build their "dream homes" in the countryside; some of these will probably be every bit as ostentatious as one very opulent mansion outside Longford town.

Mr Mac An Bheatha reported that land prices have rocketed, with one 40-acre field recently fetching £3.8 million. And though he acknowledged that the scheme would inject new life into areas hit by population decline, he queried the advisability of the State encouraging one-off houses based on septic tank drainage.

Enda Kenny admitted that he had some regrets about the out-turn of the seaside resorts scheme, particularly the imbalance between holiday homes and other vehicles for investment.

"We have to decide as clearly as possible where we want to go and how we're going to get there. We need an overall plan before there's another scheme."

Unfortunately, there is no such plan for the Upper Shannon region. And on the basis of past experience - as well as what's already happening on the ground in Longford and Leitrim - it seems that we have another incipient disaster on our hands. Is it that greed is so rampant that it cannot be controlled or that we're merely incorrigible?