Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have an opportunity to speak briefly on the Thirty-fifth Amendment of the Constitution (Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) Bill 2016. I commend my colleague, Deputy Thomas Pringle, on bringing the legislation before the House and the tremendous work he has done on the Bill in this and the previous Dáil.

The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights or ICESCR was ratified by Ireland almost 30 years ago in 1989, yet we have still not incorporated it in the Constitution and domestic law. Despite the UN's reviews in 1999 and 2002 which called on Ireland to adopt the ICESCR, we are still evading doing so and the Minister of State has not given any hope that the position will change. The vast majority of members of the Constitutional Convention - 85% - voted in favour of these rights being protected in the Constitution, yet the Government has avoided following through on the convention's decision. Instead, it has offered referendums on issues of lesser importance, including the referendum the Taoiseach announced last weekend. At the final meeting of the Constitutional Convention in February 2014, members voted to highlight certain rights which should be expressly stated in the Constitution, namely, the rights of persons with disabilities; the rights to housing, health care and social security; linguistic and cultural rights; and the rights provided for in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights,

Earlier, when opening the debate, Deputy Pringle dealt comprehensively and efficiently with one of the key critiques of the amendment, which is that it is merely aspirational because of the expression, "subject to its maximum available resources", but this is an unfair interpretation by people who have criticised the motion in that regard, because it means if the amendment had been made to the Constitution, Governments would have had to make decisions to best utilise the resources available to ensure these rights were protected, progressed and improved and would have to had to protect the most vulnerable in society during the draconian cuts of the austerity years since 2008. Passage of this Bill and the amendment of Article 45 would also trigger support for these citizens' rights from the Judiciary in the mere fact of upholding the Constitution. The section which states, "This duty shall be cognisable by the Courts", is important.

Former Deputies, Ruairí Quinn and Kevin Humphreys, attempted in 2000 and 2012 to bring forward similar legislation. They had the opportunity during a long number of years in government to bring the legislation through the Dáil and have it easily passed in a referendum. In the last general election, I stood as an Independent candidate, alongside my colleague Deputy Pringle, as a Right2Change candidate. We believe strongly in the rights to water, jobs, decent work, housing, health, debt justice, education, democratic reform, equality, sustainable environment, and natural resources. The Bill reinforces those principles and will enshrine certain rights in law by amending Bunreacht na hÉireann.

The ICESCR includes the rights to work and just and favourable conditions of work, to form and join trade unions, to social security to protection and assistance for the family, and to an adequate standard of living. All those rights are provided for in the Bill if the House wishes to pass it. Some of the ESC rights are provided for under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and various conventions such as the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Over the years, attempts have been made to realise key elements of these rights. I brought forward the first trade union recognition Bill in the history of the State in the Oireachtas, but, in many respects, since the 1980s, we have seen vigorous attacks on people’s economic and social rights. Having these rights enshrined in our Constitution would ensure they were protected and not at the mercy of the Government of the day. It would also ensure a more consistent application of the rights even when Governments change.

I have just completed reading Professor Joe Stiglitz's book,The Price of Inequality, a powerful advocacy for ending the gross inequality that has developed since the mid-1980s, in particular. Professor Stiglitz recalls how President Reagan, who is so reminiscent of the current US President, and Mrs. Thatcher and her Tory gang led all-out assaults on these fundamental rights in the UK and US and began turning back the social equality gains of the 1960s and 1970s. The onset of financialisation from the early 1990s facilitated outrageous regressive developments, including whereby mortgages of families were bought and sold in bundles and the commercialisation of basis social services was developed. In this country, the Progressive Democrats Party was the cancerous element along with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, that influenced the adoption of these changes.

I warmly congratulate Deputy Pringle. It is time for this Bill to be brought forward and to give the electorate a say. If the Bill is put to them, 98% will vote overwhelmingly to incorporate the amendment in the Constitution. I warmly welcome it.

See this speech in context