The Government has been warned that Dublin's suburban sprawl could lead to health problems for many people and dangerously skewed development.
The Urban Forum, which is made up of five planning groups, has called for the creation of a second urban centre in the west to rival the capital and for the National Spatial Strategy to be redrawn.
The Urban Forum is made up of Engineers Ireland, the Irish Landscape Institute, the Irish Planning Institute, the Royal Institute of the Architects of Ireland and the Society of Chartered Surveyors.
It has warned that Dublin is expanding so quickly it will soon occupy the same surface area as Los Angeles, but with less than a quarter of its population. As a consequence, the average car in Ireland travels 70% more each year than France, 50% more than Britain - and even 30% more than the US.
The Forum says there is substantial evidence to suggest this will lead to obesity, cardiovascular disease, asthma and increased rates of social isolation.
It is demanding that sprawl be arrested by revising the National Spatial Strategy, creating a second urban centre in the west to rival Dublin, by increasing staffing of planning bodies and a greater emphasis on high speed rail.
