Mr. Paul Joyce:

The experts or those who have done the work in this area recently are those in the Mercy Law Resource Centre. Their view and the view of the Constitutional Convention is that a right to housing should be enshrined in the Constitution. It would take time to do that in the sense that a Bill would have to be put together and a referendum would have to take place but as an immediate priority a right to housing could be put on a legislative basis. The view of the Mercy Law Resource Centre is that legislation could be amended and the intention of legislation could be reversed, whereas if something is in the Constitution then it would require a further referendum to reverse it. The constitutional route has more firm grounds. I think both options should be taken.