Minister of State for Housing and Planning Jan O'Sullivan has launched a report aimed at tackling excessive and uncoordinated rezoning.
Ms O'Sullivan said that during the boom years the planning system became addicted to zoning, rather than making provision for the needs of communities.
She said this led to a peak of more than 42,000 hectares of land rezoned for housing by 2009, which represented an oversupply of 4.5 times of what was actually needed for that purpose.
"This is evidence of the Celtic Tiger era gone mad," she said.
Ms O'Sullivan said more than 5,000 hectares had been de-zoned, and other excessive zoning would be tackled this year through reviews of local area plans.
She named the eight city and county councils that have not yet completed a review of zonings, adding that she would be writing to the managers of the local authorities in the next few days.
Letters will go to Donegal; Carlow; Longford; Westmeath; Roscommon; Meath; Waterford and Limerick.
Meanwhile, a new website to allow members of the public greater access to the planning system was also launched. myplan.ie will provide information on development plans across the country, along with details of projected population, schools and flood plains.
Ms O'Sullivan said the new website would help ensure the planning system was for the benefit of the public and was not "developer-led".
