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

I thank Ms Regan for her presentation. I warmly congratulate her for the report itself. A fair number of members were at the launch. It has been a long time since I have attended the launch of an NGO sector document in Buswells Hotel that was as well attended. That says much about both Mercy Law Resource Centre and this issue. I recommend that people read the report. It is a short document and very accessible and I would commend it to members. Sinn Féin published a constitutional amendment Bill on this very subject last week and it is something we are hoping to bring before the Dáil when it is up and running.

I have some practical questions for Ms Regan. People who argue against the constitutional right to housing make references to both the cost and the implications thereof. Even under the South African model, to which Ms Regan refers in the document, there are some caveats in South Africa's constitutional protection within available resources, etc. I would like to tease out that particular debate and hear her response to the argument put forward by opponents of the right to housing within the constitution. It is also interesting that Ms Regan uses two phrases in the document and again in the presentation, namely, "basic floor of protection" and "reasonably protect". Those phrases clearly have a meaning to her as a practising lawyer. They might mean something different to people outside of the legal sector. Perhaps Ms Regan could explain, in more practical terms, what the phrases mean and what tools would they provide to lawyers and to those who advocate for people with housing needs if they were included in the Constitution. Ms Regan talks a great deal about South Africa. However, I would have been more interested to know about a more comparable EU member state. Is there one EU member state she could pick that has a constitutional right to housing and could she tell us the benefits to that country? It would be a better comparison for us than South Africa.