A planning institute that advises the Government has called for an independent inquiry into 'the catastrophic failure' of the planning system.
The National Institute for Regional Spatial Analysis (NIRSA) says the planning failures contributed to the property bubble and the financial crisis.
It has released a report showing there is an oversupply of at least 103,000 housing units in Ireland.
The report claims that 'reckless planning' led to a dramatic oversupply of housing with more than 300,000 housing units or one in six houses now uninhabited for the majority of the year.
It says the problem is particularly evident in the 620 ghost estates across the country.
The NIRSA, which is part of NUI Maynooth, argues that a number of local authorities have essentially ignored good planning guidelines.
It says planning was driven by demands of developers and speculators and ambitious localised growth plans.
It says the Government actively encouraged the excesses through tax incentives and disregarding its own principals, as set out in the National Spatial Strategy, through policies such as decentralisation.
The institute says the Government has two levers to control building development, fiscal policy and the planning system, and both failed.
It therefore argues that, like the banking reports, Ireland also needs an independent inquiry into planning policy, over-zoning of land, granting of planning permission and property tax incentives.
