Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 5 July 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government

Right to Housing: Discussion

Mr. Wayne Stanley:

One of the things that is helpful, and Senator Cummins raised some of it, is to build a consensus. Deputy Cian O'Callaghan's suggestion around doing some of the work on what this will look like in reality will be important. We have experienced consensus in this committee and in our broader consultations with political parties around the commitment that is there around the right to housing and the referendum. I would like it if we could see that consensus in the campaign, in order for the public to see that the political system sees the benefit of it. As we come to that wording, there should be a process. One of the things that is unfortunate about the commission is that it is sitting and thinking. The conference in UCD was very welcome and helped to move us forward, so this is not a criticism of the commission in any way. That kind of process of deliberative democracy, which involves talking these things through and questioning the wording, is really important. While we want the referendum to happen as quickly as possible, we want it to happen as quickly as possible in the right conditions and ensure we have essentially done the groundwork. I am not sure if anyone else wants to add to that.