Ireland has the most cyclical construction sector in Europe, equalled only by Spain. Except for an interlude of normality in the early 1990s, it has been dominated for half a century by booms, busts, slow and painful recoveries, housing shortages and surpluses, soaring and crashing prices. Unless this exceptional cyclicality is tackled, it may frustrate reforms and disrupt housing markets more or less indefinitely.

This work is a forensic and necessary examination of one of the most pressing issues facing Irish society today. It describes how policies on each stage of the development process have evolved, and suggests systematic changes to incentives affecting each of them, designed to minimise the negative impacts of cyclical swings.
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Dr Nicholas Mansergh has 35 years' experience as a planner in Cork. He helped shape Cork’s strategic Land Use Transportation Study; led forward planning sections in the city in the 1980s and the county in the 1990s; led development control in South Cork during the boom and the Monard new town design team thereafter. He is a member of the Irish Planning Institute, has held two research fellowships and continues to lecture in UCC.