Professor Colm O'Cinneide:

I will act as devil's advocate. It generates expectations that cannot be fulfilled. People will say they have a right to housing and they expect it to be vindicated. The Government will reply that it is running low on money, there is a crisis in Ukraine, it is dealing with substantial inflation and it has a problem. The gap between reality and practice can be a problem. It can cause discontent, disillusionment and anger.

The second problem is the risk of unintended legal consequences. This is always a risk. My view is that these can be overstated, especially in a jurisdiction like Ireland where the courts are very consistent in how they interpret and apply legislation on constitutional provisions. One can have unanticipated legal consequences, such as middle-class, quite privileged litigants being able to afford very expensive senior counsel to challenge a particular provision relating to a right to housing. That is a potential risk. I think it can be overstated.

The third potential problem relates to the creation of uncertainty. There is an abstract constitutional provision. No one is quite sure how it affects landlord and tenant law, property law, existing administrative policy on housing allocation and so on. It would put things up in the air, which can a problem. Those are three negative arguments.