In a post Celtic Tiger vista the Irish tourism sector is left with this legacy of inadequately planned tourism infrastructure. Clearly the availability of finance afforded by banks stimulated a proliferation and over supply of tourist accommodation in some areas. However, such developments were required to go through a planning process outlined in the Planning and Development Act of 2000. The questions this paper is concerned with are what were the planners doing during this period? The paper is based on research carried out in the middle of the Celtic Tiger (2002-2005) on sustainable planning for tourism in Ireland. It involved content analysis of every County Development Plan (CDP) along with interviews with forward planners across different County Councils. The research identifies a number of potential pitfalls in relation to consultation and planning.