Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the representatives of Home for Good for attending. I appreciate all the work that has been done on this issue to date. The Social Democrats have been very supportive of a constitutional right to housing. It is good to see near cross-party consensus on this.

According to research carried out by the Oireachtas Library and Research Service, approximately 13 different Bills could not go through the Oireachtas and proceed on the basis of the Constitution, which is certainly one of the reasons we need this referendum. As has been referenced, the Constitutional Convention in 2014 recommended a constitutional amendment to include the right to housing. This has been knocking about and has been before other Oireachtas committees. It is now in the programme for Government and there is a proposed wording for a referendum on the right to housing. What sort of timeframe do our guests think we are looking at? What sort of preparatory work would be needed on the wording and building political consensus? What sort of timeframe are we looking at? We do not know when we can have a referendum because of Covid-19 but if we park that consideration and assume it would not be a factor, how soon could we have a referendum? How soon do our guests think we need to have a referendum on this matter? There is a strong argument from a housing rights perspective. We also know from previous cycles that if commitments included in a programme for Government do not happen within the first couple of years, they will not always be delivered on in the final year, or whatever. What would be our guests' views about the timing of a referendum?