Ms Maeve Regan:

There is a good deal in what Deputy Coppinger said and I thank her for that. Her first point was on the question of whether legislation would be good enough instead of the constitutional change. Our point is that constitutional change would be best of all and would represent the most enduring and sound change. We would still need legislation. Court cases could evolve what is needed but the better thing would be to have legislation that protects it. There are two things about it. It would be quite helpful if we were to protect the right to housing in legislation. However, the concern is that legislation gets changed and amended. It can be quick but equally it can be changed quickly. That is our greatest concern in the case of legislation protecting this right. Since it is a fundamental right, we consider its home to be in the Constitution.

Some points were raised this morning by Clare Naughton from the Law Society of Ireland. There are areas where legislation would really help. I do not intend to go into those areas in detail now but a number of issues arise. One relates to priority. I have no wish to go off the point but let us consider what happens when a person is given homeless or medical priority. At the moment, if a person is given medical priority, it really does not mean much in terms of how quickly he or she is housed. There are certainly areas where legislation could assist. An obligation on local authorities to provide accommodation does not exist in legislation at the moment and certainly it would be helpful if there was legislation in that area. There is a real role for legislation, in particular, when it comes to getting into the detail of what is going on. However, the right is a fundamental one and it is best protected in the Constitution, although certainly legislation can help and alleviate the situation for people.

The question of length of stay and whether a nine to 18 month stay was becoming normal came up. Our organisation is working with people who are at the most desperate edge of homelessness. They need legal help to access basic entitlements. Organisations like Focus Ireland would be better placed to do a statistical overview of what is happening in terms of length of stay. However, we work with families regularly in accommodation from between eight to 18 months. The longest situation we might encounter might be nearly two years. In a recent case, the family was ultimately housed, which was good news, but it was only after a lengthy representation. That family with young children were almost two years in emergency accommodation.

Reference was made to children's rights. I know the Master of the High Court adverted to compulsory purchase orders by reference to children's rights. We are unable to speak to that with expertise. However, I can comment on children's rights as an approach to alleviating the situation for people on an individual basis. We try to invoke children's rights in respect of the family situation. However, the extent to which we can do that is limited. In fact, we are working on how we can use those rights in our cases but they are evolving. We know this is not going to be the direct route as such, although in certain cases it is helpful. I am unsure whether that answers the question about children's rights.

Reference was made to Paul Sweeney. He is the chairman of the TASC Economists' Network and he spoke at our launch. His bottom line was that we have the money. We are not economists but it would appear we have it. When we were far poorer, social housing was built in the 1960s and 1970s. We were well able to do it then, so why can we not do it now?

One question was whether local authorities should be building. I am unsure whether that was Deputy Coppinger's question.