Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentations. Homelessness and the lack of affordable housing are the biggest social challenges facing our country today. I would be interested in a global definition of homelessness. Our homeless figures are hovering around 10,000 people, including 1,700 families and 3,500 children. However, every month there is an argument with the Minister as he takes people off the homelessness list. He took 200 this month and 600 last month. We do not have any clear definition of “homelessness”, however.

We all had an aspiration to owning our own home at some stage. However, because of the affordability issue, there is a whole generation who can never aspire to owning their own homes. Every politician genuinely wants to fix the problem. We get down to the constitutional right versus the legal right to housing. Examples have been given of Finland, Scotland, France and other countries where there is either a constitutional or a legal right to housing. However, there still remains a housing crisis in some of these countries. Is it down to the will of the people to fix the problem? If we do not have that will, drive and passion to fix the housing crisis, then we need the legislative and constitutional framework to fix it.

Ms Leilani Farha mentioned delegation to private actors. We have clearly seen that we have a significant over-reliance on the private sector to solve the problem. It was a historical mistake made several years ago for which I am not blaming anybody. However, there is a clear indication that we need to go back to direct build. I fully agree with Ms Leilani Farha that affordability has to be based on the income of the family, not on other factors.

Ms Sinead Kerin mentioned security of tenure as one of the biggest causes of homelessness. While we would have no problem with a constitutional or legal right to housing, introducing it would not automatically mean the problem would be fixed. What key three or four key actions would the witnesses take to address the housing crisis?