Attempts to halt Dublin's urban sprawl unsuccessful, census finds

Attempts to halt Dublin's urban sprawl into surrounding counties appears not to have been successful - at least up until 2002, according to the latest census figures.

Under the Strategic Planning Guidelines for the Greater Dublin Area which were first put forward in 1999, development in the Greater Dublin Area would be largely restricted to the "metropolitan area", with only building for local growth in the "hinterland area" - a green belt comprising most of Wicklow, Kildare and Meath.

However, according to figures released yesterday by the Central Statistics Office, some 70 per cent of the growth of the towns of Sallins, Co Kildare and Ratoath in Co Meath took place between 1996 and the 2002 census. Indeed, the CSO figures indicate that a quarter of all housing stock in Cos Meath and Kildare was built between 1996 and 2002.

An analysis of housing output over the period indicates most of the new building took place in the latter three years - in effect after the publication of the guidelines.

A CSO spokesman also revealed that while the figures show rural population did not decline between 1961 and 2002 - the actual figure is a rise of 0.1 per cent - some areas classed as rural are in fact now commuter dormitories in the greater Dublin region.

The figures also show those living in the Republic are forming smaller households and increasingly living in apartments. The 2002 census indicated 8.6 per cent of the population now live in apartments. While one third of these were built in the 10 years to 2002, the numbers in apartments varied considerably. In Dublin, for example, 29 per cent of the population of private homes were based in apartments while in South Dublin County Council's area it was just 2.6 per cent.

In rural areas four out of five houses were detached, while in urban areas semi-detached houses represented 40 per cent of the housing stock. There were more than 400,000 septic tanks in the State in 2002 but figures for earlier censuses were not available. Almost all of these tanks were in rural areas.

While drinking water from the public mains was the predominant source of water in rural areas as well as towns, the census identified 135,000 (27 per cent) rural dwellings with a private source of water other than a group scheme.

We are still a State of home-owners although this seems to be changing slowly. The share of those living in their own homes actually fell between 1991 and 2002, from 80.2percent to 77.4 per cent. At the same time the number of private rented dwellings doubled to 141,000.