RESEARCH SERIES

This Working Paper focuses upon aspects of Ireland’s recent urbanisation processes and outcomes. In particular, the Working Paper examines the realities of recent urban change and contrasts those outcomes with the aspirations of the National Spatial Strategy, 2002-2020. Ireland does not have an explicit, comprehensive urban policy; such urban related policies as do exist are threaded through a wide diversity of national programmes and implemented by a variety of agencies, not always well coordinated. Over three quarters of the total growth of population between 1996 and 2002 was accommodated within urban areas, distributed across all urban size categories. Much of the rural population growth was recorded within the hinterlands of Dublin, the other cities and the major towns. Looked at in terms of ‘Functional Areas ’ just under fifty percent of all population increase occurred within the functional region of Dublin. Section 2 of the Working Paper briefly examines recent changes in the policy environment within which recent urban growth has taken place. The major policy context has been set down in the National Development Plan, 2000-2006 where implementation is increasingly reliant on private and partnership initiatives. The major catalyst for urban chang