Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is fine. On the substance of it, housing needs demand assessment is critical in the development plans setting their population targets and their core strategies. My understanding from previous meetings with departmental officials is that there is already headroom of somewhere between 20% and 25%. This is not an argument against what the Minister is proposing, I just want to think it through. The Minister is saying a local authority might have approved planning permission in a designated area, not just up to the HNDA target but beyond that with the headroom that is already provided. Anything above that under no set of circumstances could be refused on the basis that those population targets have been met in both uncommenced permissions and commenced permissions up to the HNDA target and the headroom.

I agree with the Minister that the HNDA targets are out of date, not just because they are based on the 2016 census but also because the ESRI report they were based on did not take into account pent-up demand. Therefore, they were always significantly out, even in 2019 and 2020 when the ESRI study that was commissioned by the Department was done. We know those are being reviewed and will have to be worked into the development plans.

The concern here is that the purpose of not just the HNDA target but the additional headroom that is already being provided for is to take account of the capacity in that area. That capacity could be an infrastructural or wastewater treatment capacity, it could be to do with environmental considerations or it could just be the management of growth. I am thinking of my constituency which had significant levels of Celtic tiger era overdevelopment, including uncommenced planning permissions in Newcastle and Rathcoole, two of the fastest growing urban areas in the State during that period. Sites with historical planning permission are being developed and there are sites with new planning that are uncommenced. There is clearly not a capacity to go beyond what is currently there and, therefore, the local authority has rightly taken a cautious approach to moving beyond that capacity. Is there anything in the amendment that would undermine what the very good plan-led approach being taken by South Dublin County Council in that area? It is seeking to ensure we do not return to chronic levels over overdevelopment in certain areas where clearly any additional granting of planning permission, not only breaching the HNDA targets but also the existing headroom added to them, would constitute very significant levels of overdevelopment. I am trying to grapple with the real-life implications of what is being proposed.