Professor Colm O'Cinneide:

Not with the constitutionalising of provisions; not with the existence of a right to housing. There is very little correlation between a constitutional change and significant economic effects. Again, I emphasise that the constitutional stage is only one part of a wider set of responses. As ever, if you mess up your housing policy and legislation, it can have unintended economic consequences in the same way as it can have unintended legal consequences. My own sense is that the referendum is unlikely to have those effects if the referendum campaign is conducted with a certain degree of honesty and clarity. The insertion of a right to housing in the Constitution is not going to immediately change much directly in the law, particularly when it comes to private parties of landlords. The negative effects you are talking about are much more likely to come from errors in legislation and policy mistakes later on in the process but that could happen today. In other words, it is more of a potential issue when it comes to policy design rather than at the constitutional stage.