Morale among planners in the public sector is at "rock bottom," according to the president of the Irish Planning Institute, Mr Philip Jones.
Speaking before the opening of the IPI's conference today, he said the number of planners should be doubled to ensure that new legislation was properly implemented.
Mr Jones said many planners were working "nights and weekends for a number of years on an almost continuous basis, completely unpaid, to cope with the tremendous pressures brought about by the development boom". Over the last five years, the number of planning applications had doubled, while the number of planners had increased by less than one-third.