Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

It seems the Taoiseach is only interested in the rights of people who have property, not the rights of other people who are on the housing waiting lists, who are homeless and so on. One would have to ask how many homeless does it take for the Taoiseach to recognise the obstacle that is Article 43, and it is most profound, obviously, in regard to housing. The Taoiseach clearly is not listening to the points that are made very strongly by the current Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government and previous Ministers for housing in respect of the obstacle Article 43 has put in their way. In addition to the whole area of housing, Article 43 has been a long-standing impediment to fair and balanced legislation in many different areas. For example, we know that, in 1996, the Supreme Court ruled that the Employment Equality Bill was unconstitutional because it put too much of a cost burden on employers. We know that the risk of unconstitutionality was also cited as the reason that the last Government reneged on its promise to abolish upward-only rent reviews. We know that, in this Government, the Minister, Deputy Naughten, has indicated that Article 43 is an impediment to legislating to address the over-concentration of media ownership in this country. For all of these reasons, but particularly in regard to the housing crisis, I ask the Taoiseach to reconsider his priorities and commit to a referendum to amend Article 43 of the Constitution.

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