Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I said before in the House, I have an open mind on the question of including a right to housing in our Constitution, although I am also very aware from research by the Mercy Law Resource Centre and others that there are approximately 83 countries in the world that either have a statutory right to housing or a constitutional right to such housing. All of them have issues with homelessness and in some cases they have shanty towns, favelasand all sorts of things that I am thankful we do not have in this country. I am not entirely convinced it is the real solution, to use the Deputy's term.

The matter should be properly considered by an Oireachtas committee and not just rushed through the House. We must understand what would be the implications and we should never change our Constitution lightly. We need to understand the implications and how they might be interpreted by the courts, and we must also know what would be the costs and how they could be met. We must also work out whether it would make a difference in practical terms for people in real need of better housing. In the debate, the Sinn Féin contributors have not made convincing arguments in that regard.

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