Summary: AJ Noonan is the <a href="http://www.sfa.ie/Sectors/SFA/SFA.nsf/vPages/Home?OpenDocument" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">chairman</a> of the <a href="https://twitter.com/SFA_Irl" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Small Firms Association</a>.<br> The SFA’s <a href="http://www.sfa.ie/Sectors/SFA/SFA.nsf/vPages/News~sfa-budget-2017-submission-22-08-2016/%24file/Pre-Budget+2017+Submission_Small+Firms+Association.pdf" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">pre-budget submission is here</a>. AJ queried my assertion that building land around Dublin was concentrated in a small number of hands. Business & Finance magazine reported in 2000 that the bulk of the development land in Dublin was owned by just eight speculators – Gerry Gannon, Michael Cotter, Mickey Whelan, Tom and Mick Bailey, Joe O’Reilly and Brian Wallace, David Daly, Joe Moran and Liam Carroll.<br> I also mentioned that Ireland is the only exception to the Europe-wide trend that land prices broadly match population density. This graph shows the pattern clearly. Apart from Sweden and Finland which have huge unpopulated Arctic regions, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Area_and_population_of_European_countries" data-wpel-link="external" target="_blank" rel="external noopener noreferrer">Ireland has the lowest population density in the EU 15</a>.<br>
