"Proper planning is the key to improving the quality of people's lives. We have to make a choice between smart growth and urban sprawl. With the Greens in Government, we'll ensure that we build in the right places for the right reasons. As an architect and town planner I despair at some of the monstrosities that have been built in recent times. We need to have greater public participation in the planning process, and this will lead to better decisions by those in charge.

"There are major deficits in our planning system. In some cases towns are sprawling out into the surrounding countryside in projects designed to please developers and landowners, rather than meet the needs of the community. In other cases, towns and villages can't grow at all due to a lack of vital infrastructure including water and sewage treatment facilities. Our policies seek to enable local and national authorities to make more intelligent planning decisions while removing the profiteering motives that have so blighted recent developments."

Green Party candidate for Wicklow Cllr Deirdre de Burca said: "We plan to establish a national transport and land use authority; remove bottlenecks on town expansion; provide for proper planning at a regional level; reform An Bord Pleanála; and improve public participation in the planning process – facilitating consultation, not conflict. Our planning proposals are all about intelligent and sustainable development as these proposals demonstrate."