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Infrastructure, Public Utilities and Spatial Developmentconsume private space. Equally, housing policy should, as far aspossible, facilitate economic and social mobility. The challenge is todevise a policy to achieve spatial balance that does not restrain thedynamic of economic and social development, yet makes regionsmore attractive.9.2.2 A National Spatial StrategyIn 1994 the Council drew attention to the critical need for thedevelopment of national settlement policy. The Council furtherdeveloped its views on the importance of a national spatialframework in its 1999 Strategy:A National Spatial Development Strategy (NSDS) wouldprovide a framework for the operation of the threeprinciples of infrastructural development—comprehensiveness,co-ordination and ‘long-termism’. It is throughthis principled approach that the objectives of infrastructuraldevelopments are most likely to be achieved. ANSDS would provide a framework for analysing relationshipsbetween changes in land use, economic activity,population and infrastructure. It would also provide abasis for correcting past mistakes that have resulted inuneven development between the East (especially Dublin)and the rest of the country that has led to damagingeconomic and social problems in both areas due tocongestion and marginalisation. By having a nationalorientation, it would recognise that the country iscomposed of many different spatial units (national,regional, local, urban, rural, suburban etc.), where no unitis subsidiary to any other, but the workings of the wholeare enhanced by the co-ordination and integration of itsconstituent parts. And, while a NSDS would provide anappropriate framework for considering infrastructuralissues, this would not be the only role of the NSDS.Fundamentally, it would seek to provide a means fordevising a co-ordinated and integrated response from aspatial perspective to broader goals such as maximisingeconomic performance, social inclusion and environmentalsustainability. (NESC, 1999: 457)445