Freezing all development within one kilometre of the coastline, developing Athlone as a "polycentric city" and electrifying the rail links from Dublin to Belfast, Cork, Galway and Rosslare are among the more radical proposals put forward by the Labour Party.
But its "Visions of Ireland" are somewhat contradictory. Like everyone else, Labour acknowledges that Dublin exerts a "strong domination" throughout the Republic and talks about the need to "limit the development of the eastern region" at the expense of the west.
If one of the party's objectives is to "Make the West as Wealthy as the Rest", how can this be squared with consolidating the role and competitive position of Dublin internationally, not to mention accelerating the development of the Belfast/Dublin economic corridor?
And though the document specifically nominates Athlone, Sligo and Enniskillen as candidates to become "new cities", forging their own networks, it gives no indication of the scale of population which might be accommodated in these and other urban centres.
Quite rightly, Labour says every region needs an urban "driver" to act as a focus for growth. It is also correct in diagnosing the present pattern of sprawling urban expansion as unsustainable, not least because it is creating a "predominantly car-based society". However, given that no route has yet been finalised to reinstate a rail link between Navan and Dublin, it seems farfetched to imagine this line could be extended all the way to Cavan, Omagh, Derry and Letterkenny, as well as electrifying four existing main lines.
The party's document, like many others, favours developing both housing and industry along public transport corridors, and endorses the idea of higher-density housing. But Labour needs to spell this out to some of its own councillors who have opposed such schemes.
And while it complains about the "bungalow blitz", no specific measures are suggested to curtail its spread - apart from the proposal, borrowed from Denmark without acknowledgement, to ban new development outside urban centres within one kilometre of the coast.
This would be designed to limit the spread of new holiday homes, among other threats, and might be extended to include the Shannon catchment. Yet it was Mr Ruairi Quinn, as Minister for Finance, who sanctioned the disastrous tax incentive scheme for seaside resorts.
Repeating the age-old objective of stabilising the rural population, Labour denies its coastline protection scheme and designation of important natural landscapes would amount to "freezing" large tracts of countryside; farming would continue, albeit less intensively.
Whether Athlone can really be developed as a "polycentric city", with outlying settlements such as Clara, Moate and Ballinasloe all linked together by good public transport, may be a pipe dream. It will all depend on the extent to which Dublin's expansion can be contained.
Although outline plans for Athlone and Waterford are fleshed out in some detail, the document is curiously incomplete in not doing the same for other growth centres. It also concedes that Labour "has no monopoly on wisdom" and is merely contributing to an important debate.
As for past failures to grasp the nettle of regional development, Labour frankly concedes it shares part of the responsibility. But its claim that lack of resources lay at the heart of this problem is overstated; the narrow focus of clientilist politics played an equally important role.