Tall buildings are not all bad. Dublin has had strong restrictions on building height since the 1960s. An argument for this was to maintain the character of th

Tall buildings are not all bad. Dublin has had strong restrictions on building height since the 1960s. An argument for this was to maintain the character of the city, although the destruction of many Georgian buildings was allowed by planners, on spurious health and safety grounds. The worst effects of the policy were felt during and after the boom of the early 2000s, when accommodation was built further and further out from the city, leading to sprawl, and a commuter belt that stretched 100 kilometres in all directions, which put immense pressure on transport infrastructure. With so much construction, this represents in hindsight a missed opportunity to create more liveable centres or hubs in the style of London or other large cities. Allowing taller structures for residential purposes in central city areas, would have improved Dublin's liveability. Instead, there is now a critical housing crisis that no one seems to know how to solve.