Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

My concern about this relates to circumstances in which the population targets are updated, which the Department is in the process of doing. If the extra capacity, the headroom, is used up and permissions granted are activated, we could be in a scenario where capacity is maxed out and the local authority cannot refuse permission. The Minister is saying local authorities can definitely refuse applications if there are infrastructure capacity constraints. Are the housing growth targets not in some instances the way to measure when infrastructure capacity constraints kick in? Are they not sometimes tied in with capacity to deliver housing in an area? Is there not a calculation based on them? Are the targets purely based on need or are they tied in with capacity to deliver infrastructure? I ask the Minister to explain how they intersect.