Ms Maeve Regan:

I thank Deputy Ó Broin. The argument used against any economic, social or cultural right is that it affects resources. The way the convention voted - and the way this right is defined in international human rights law in the convention - is that because it is an economic or social right the obligation is to progressively realise the right. It is not an absolute right and must be progressively realised to the maximum of available resources. There is always a caveat in respect of resources. How the right is understood - and it is built into how the right can be developed - is always in the resource choices the State has at a given time. That is the only realistic way that any of these rights could be interpreted. When we speak of resources it must be remembered that other rights which are fundamentally accepted in the State also cost money; civil and political rights, the right to a fair trial, the right to vote, the provision of legal aid. These all cost money and the right to housing is no different in that sense.

They are rights that we fundamentally accept here, and they cost money also. As I said, it is also to be progressively realised to the maximum of available resources and that wording would be most appropriate in a constitutional provision.

In terms of what "reasonably protect" means, this makes clear that this is not an absolute right but that there are choices and balances to be made. There is a reason we refer to South Africa in the report. I completely see the point that it would be interesting to look at an EU country and our next report - our follow-up report - will be on comparing EU countries, because people will be interested to see how that works. The reason we use South Africa is because the courts there have been very good at explaining how they interpret the right. In terms of what is "reasonable", they will not get into the minutiae of the decision but they have to be able to see that there was a reasonable protection of the right by reference to what the State was doing with that particular policy, if that makes sense.

The EU member state point is a very good one. The country I would refer to is Portugal, which has a constitutional right to housing. However, we are developing that research because we want to bring it down and compare it to Ireland. We are currently working on that and would be happy to provide that when we have done it. In terms of what it does, in any European country, it provides a floor of protection. In Scotland, there has been a proactive approach to ending homelessness, basing it in law. It has been very effective in Scotland. The law, based on a constitutional right, which we would be calling for here, can be very effective.