The health of the community has suffered because "the main party in Government is too closely linked to the construction industry" and does not put the interests of society first, according to unconventional property developer Mick Wallace.
Addressing the Irish Planning Institute's annual conference in Kilkenny, he said the Government had "backed down" under pressure from builders and developers on the affordable housing provisions of Part V of the 2000 Planning Act.
Instead of having to allocate 20 per cent of housing schemes for social and affordable homes, they were being "allowed to move quotas around to maximise their profits. As a result, ghettoisation continues, and that's very sad."
Mr Wallace said even in cases where housing was mixed, lower quality materials were being used for the social and affordable element than for the private units.
"That's just crazy, and it shouldn't be allowed," he told nearly 300 planners.
There was no supervision of construction standards, "and if you go around Dublin and look, there's more bad work than good, unfortunately". This showed that self-regulation by architects and engineers had failed.
Even though he was a beneficiary of the Section 23 tax incentive scheme, it had been "kept on far too long", with the result that most apartments were bought by investors and this militated against the development of community spirit.
Referring to his development on Ormond Quay, Dublin, Mr Wallace conceded that most of the 33 apartments there had been bought by investors. "But we've tried to create a community spirit in other ways; built around a pedestrian street."
He had retained six of the eight commercial units, including wine bars and coffee shops. "If I had just sold to the highest bidder we would have ended up with a Centra, a bookies' office and a takeaway, and the scheme would not have worked as well."
Irish society had become much more materialistic, and people were now "more solitary than social, with no sense of responsibility for our fellow man".
He said politicians might claim credit for a strong economy, but they were less good at building a good society.
Mr Wallace said he had bought an apartment in Turin 10 years ago "for the price of a parking space in Dublin". He was able to contrast the lack of social ghettoisation there with the "very class-conscious, very divided" society in Ireland.
Whereas Dublin's home ownership level was above 80 per cent, it was only 15 per cent in Turin.
"There's a huge rental market and it works very well for them. They don't have our obsession with ownership, and their quality of life is way ahead of our own."
The courtyards of apartment blocks in Dublin were dead zones, but in Turin they would be "full of life, with kids playing in them".
Balconies in Italy were big enough to live on, but here they were "just token gestures".
Most housing in Dublin was being built without playing pitches or social facilities.
"You have to go to a place that sells alcohol to meet anyone in this country. If we're going to build communities, the Government should be playing a leading role."
Another developer, Dominic Doheny, director of John Flanagan Developments, told the conference that some restriction should be placed on the growth of Dublin so that other gateways identified in the National Spatial Strategy could get a chance to grow.
