Villages within commuting distance of Dublin and other cities are being swamped by suburban sprawl and turned into little more than dormitories, according to a senior researcher with the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
Dr Edgar Morgenroth told a conference on the future of Ireland's villages that places such as Ratoath, Dunshaughlin and Ashbourne in Co Meath were "mushrooming", with annual growth rates of up to 10 per cent per annum over the past six years.
"Bigger villages are growing faster, notably in the greater Dublin area and within the extended Dublin commuter belt.
"But a similar pattern is seen in Galway, where Oranmore has exploded, and in Annacotty, Cratloe and other villages near Limerick."
Villages such as these were being "metropolonised", Dr Morgenroth said, with large numbers of their new inhabitants commuting to work, mainly by car. Even for those villages that are not being "metropolonised", the proportion of commuters is large.
"There is now a quite pronounced 'spatial mismatch' between where people live and where they work because the density of jobs is very low outside urban areas. That's what puts a lot of cars on the road, which is not good from a sustainability point of view."
Dr Morgenroth, who admitted that he commutes by car from his home near Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, to the ESRI in Ballsbridge, Dublin, said commuting was "only part of the story", and other issues related to the availability of shopping, schools and leisure facilities.
"In the debate about land use, which is typically focused on urban densities or rural one-off houses, villages seem to have been forgotten.
"We need to think about what we want to do with them; what functions we expect them to perform."
Though there was "no clear cut definition" of a village they generally constituted small urban areas with a population of less than 1,500.
"What role do they play - mere dormitories or more? And where are the jobs needed to sustain them?"
The current development pattern of building suburban housing estates on their fringes was "likely to destroy" the heritage of villages, Dr Morgenroth warned. Such "spillover growth" was not being managed and "we'll be stuck with it for years".
As for how villages should develop into the future, he said Ireland needed to balance preservation of heritage with sustainable land use - "sensible policies that integrate land use, regional development and transport and that are actually adhered to".
The one-day conference in Durrow, Co Laois, was organised by the Heritage Council. Its chief executive, Michael Starrett, urged local authorities to find the best solutions for developing villages by adopting individually-tailored village design statements.
However, some of the tools with which local authorities have to work were "very blunt instruments", and Ireland was "alone in Europe" in not having specific and effective legislation for the management, protection and development of its landscapes.
Though few people here make the connection between villages and landscape, Mr Starrett said this was fundamental to an understanding of our settlement patterns - where we live and, in particular, the location and character of our villages.
