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Infrastructure, Public Utilities and Spatial DevelopmentFor example, while our idea of spatial balance once involved a widedispersal of population based on the maximum number of familyfarms, it might now involve sufficient city and town development tosustain economic activity and population in each region of Ireland(NESC, 1994).Likewise the Council believes that the set of infrastructuralrequirements and the appropriate spatial balance are interdependentand evolve over time. It is only with an understanding of the truebenefits and costs of spatial diversity—economic, social andenvironmental—that infrastructural requirements can be determined.Yet it is also the evolution of infrastructure, including theevolution of settlement patterns and associated economic and socialdevelopment that shapes our current thinking about appropriatespatial balance. It is clear that there is inter-dependence betweenthese elements that runs in both directions.The Variety of Institutions to deliver infrastructure and spatialbalanceIt is an ongoing challenge to find the appropriate balance betweenlocal, regional and national decision makers in infrastructural andspatial planning and provision. While the Council is in favour ofmore devolution to the local level in many policy areas, infrastructureand spatial planning is a national issue and thereforerequires national co-ordination. A major challenge is to deviseinstitutional arrangements which combine national strategy withregional co-ordination and local devolution. The devolution ofdecision making to the appropriate level is one of the twelveprinciples of sustainable development identified by Comhar(Comhar, 2002).Ireland has a fragmented set of regional and local institutionscombined with a set of unclear and underdeveloped linkagesbetween them. The Council believes that national authorities have astrategic role in planning, particularly in planning major infrastructuralprojects. This needs to be informed by local communitiesand by those at local government level to ensure that developmentbuilds quality localities and communities.437