Dr. Conor Casey:

There is a lot of interesting content in the Deputy's contribution. The wording in the report was very deliberately chosen by the Housing Commission. The focus on access is intentional because its focus is on whether the Government and the Oireachtas have put in place, through their laws, policies and so forth, the means that are reasonably fitted through cogent evidence to provide the circumstances in which people can access housing. It is not the guarantee of a specific entitlement to a house that someone can go into court to enforce. The vindication would come in circumstances where the court believes on the basis of cogent expert evidence that the Government's policies are indefensible and irrational because they are simply not appropriate to secure the end the text seeks to achieve, which is adequate housing.

That is a fairly deferential standard. We are not looking for perfection. It would be a similar standard the courts use when they are assessing the adequacy of provision for primary education or adequacy of provision for children whose parents can no longer look after them and it falls to the State to step into a guardianship role. While they do not require perfection, they require reasonable endeavours. They require evidence-based policies that show they are stepping in the right direction. If the court is convinced by the evidence that reasonable policies and laws are not being put in place, the main mechanism the courts use to vindicate rights is a declaration to declare that this situation is unconstitutional and they put it back to these Houses and the Government to solve that situation.

That puts considerable trust in the Houses of the Oireachtas and the Government to take their constitutional obligations very seriously. The courts do not get into the business of dictating how the political branch should respond, but that is the main mechanism through which it will be vindicated, declaring that this state of affairs is unconstitutional and needs to be remedied. As I am sure every Deputy knows, the courts are very reluctant to be in the business of granting mandatory orders against the Government to take steps and I do not think this wording would change that. They can issue declaratory orders that the Oireachtas and the Government should take very seriously.