While in general, I’m in agreement with the idea that we need community, I’m not altogether sure I agree with this, although it is very eloquently put.

I’m (rather cynically, I must confess) of the view that little, other than money, plays a part in the location of housing developments, and certainly, I have doubts that any long term planning in terms of urban economies of scale form any major consideration for many endless accommodation estates, be they housing or apartments. What has been done to parts of north county Dublin is soul destroying.

When you see what is condoned by planning process in this country, and the type of accommodation units being offered to the vast majority of people, it is difficult for me to condemn people for wanting to build their own houses, whether urban or rural. Unfortunately, this meitheal, these new apartment complexes/sprawling housing estates are being forced on people with little thought as to whether they are, in fact, suitable for the people who will end up living there.

The old meitheal, as you call it, developed as of itself, and as needed. Currently, little thought is being given to end user necessity in planning, and as such…I have doubts that we will sort things out in the short term.