Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would like to make a brief comment and a suggestion. Something very significant has happened in this meeting today. This is the first time in my five years in the Oireachtas that a clear majority of the housing committee has spoken in favour of the holding of a referendum to enshrine the right to housing in the Constitution. That is really significant. I say that while not in any way questioning the motives of other members who have different views or are still teasing out the issue because that is the purpose of this committee. We tried very hard to get that commitment into the 2016 report of the Committee on Housing and Homelessness but we did not succeed. We also tried to get into subsequent documents of the committee but we could not do that either. This is a really positive moment.

I suggest that on foot of this meeting, the Chairman write to the Minister setting out a flavour of the different views of the committee, because all of the views of the committee are valid, but also urging him to meet the Home for Good Coalition at the earliest available opportunity to take this dialogue to the next step. I do not think the committee should commit to a position one way or another because there are differing views but the Chairman could set out a cross-section of our views and ask the Minister to meet the Home for Good Coalition. I think that would be a positive outcome from what has been a very good discussion today.