Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, in responding to Deputy Bríd Smith's amendment, made my case for me. He referred on a number of occasions to the question of a constitutional challenge but that is exactly what my amendment is designed to ensure cannot occur. If there is a formal declaration of a housing emergency, then that puts the right of a family to a home above the right to private property.

This is not something new,. as I said earlier. A previous Government declared a financial and this Government renewed that declaration on 20 June last. This is not something that the Government does not know anything about. The Government has done this previously and as recently as 30 June.

That was to cut pay and pensions. As the Minister of State knows, pensions have been declared by the Supreme Court and the courts system generally as private property. The Government has already declared a financial emergency, the addressing of which interferes with the private property of public servants, namely, their pensions. This is effectively no different.

The Minister refers to various supports but the figures we got yesterday show that, however well-meaning and well-intentioned they are, they are not working. A total of 420 families lost their homes in the past three months, which amounts to four per day. What we are doing is adding to the existing housing emergency. It is time that we stopped. The only way to absolutely ensure that we can protect families from the trauma, ill-health and mental distress arising from homelessness and the pressure of eviction is by declaring a housing emergency. We should do that immediately.

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