Ann Phelan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputies for the wide range of comments and analyses which have been made tonight, and I certainly accept their bona fides. This discussion raises important questions and the debate on this Bill provides the opportunity to reaffirm the Government's continued commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights, including economic, social and cultural rights.

The Government's active engagement during Ireland's review by the UN Human Rights Committee on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights last year, together with the upcoming review by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in two weeks' time, which will be Ireland's third under that covenant, and, finally, Ireland's review next year under the universal periodic review process, all demonstrate the Government's active engagement with the international United Nations human rights framework. It is an important principle of our foreign policy to do all we can to assist the United Nations in its work to promote and protect human rights throughout the world. Naturally, part of the process is for us to engage with these treaty-monitoring bodies as they help call the Irish Government to account.

The Government fully understands the motivation and purpose at the heart of the Bill. Economic, social and cultural rights go to the core of Irish life. They relate to work, social security, family life, participation and access to housing, food, water, health care and education. This is why the Government engaged in wide consultation with civil society and the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission in preparing a national report as part of the examination under the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights by the UN committee. In total, more than 34 organisations made contributions, and the Government looks forward to their continued engagement following the review. Many Departments will be present in Geneva in two weeks to provide the committee with further information on how Ireland gives effect to economic, social and cultural rights under this covenant.

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights requires states to progressively achieve the full realisation of these rights. This is a central goal for the Government, especially as we exit an era of austerity into a period of renewed growth.

In April this year, the Departments of Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform announced projected public spending increases and taxation cuts in budget 2016 of between €1.2 billion and €1.5 billion. Our budgetary framework is being strengthened, we have added 95,000 net jobs to our economy since the peak of the financial crisis and there will be an additional 50,000 students in our primary and secondary education systems over the next six years. In the most difficult economic times for this country, we have given one of the largest boosts to the education system.

Another significant development relates to the right to housing. A €3.8 billion six-year strategy is being implemented to deliver 35,000 new social housing units by 2020. I want to emphasise that the Government is committed to ensuring the realisation of economic, social and cultural rights for its citizens.

The establishment of the Convention on the Constitution was approved by a resolution of both Houses of the Oireachtas. Its membership comprised 66 randomly selected citizens, 33 politicians from both Houses of the Oireachtas and the Northern Ireland Assembly and an independent chair. The Oireachtas resolution set out eight specific topics that the convention was asked to consider and report on to it. These topics were examined by the convention in its first six reports which, in addition to making recommendations on the specific topics, also made ancillary recommendations on related issues.

The Government has already responded in the Dáil to five of these six reports. It responded to the first report on the voting age and presidential term on 18 July 2013; to the second report on the role of women and women in politics on 10 October 2013; to the third report on same sex marriage on 17 December 2013; to the fourth report on electoral reform on 18 December 2014; and to the sixth report on blasphemy on 2 October 2014. In the process, the Government accepted four recommendations from the convention for constitutional change, namely, marriage equality, reducing the voting age to 16, reducing the age of candidacy for presidential elections and removing the offence of blasphemy from the Constitution. As the House is aware, the Government will hold referendums on two of these recommendations on Friday, 22 May, namely, on reducing the age of candidacy for presidential elections and on marriage equality.

With regard to the convention's fifth report on giving citizens resident outside the State the right to vote in presidential elections, the Government announced in the recent diaspora strategy that it is necessary to analyse the full range of practical and policy issues that would arise in any significant extension of the franchise.

The Government has carried out an extensive programme of constitutional reform over the past four years. We have already held referendums on six matters, as follows: investigative powers for Oireachtas committees; judges' remuneration; the fiscal stability treaty; children; abolition of the Seanad; and the establishment of a Court of Appeal. The two referendums to be held this Friday, on the age of candidacy in presidential elections and on marriage equality, will bring this number to eight. If either of the two referendums pass, it will be the first time that a proposal for constitutional reform put forward by a constitutional convention resulted in actual constitutional change.

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