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

I am sharing my time with Deputies Eamon Ryan and Shortall.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. I confirm my support for it. It is particularly important when we think of its background, including the chaos in our health services, the overcrowding, long waiting lists, the lack of mental health services, dysfunctional disability services and, of course, the two-tier health system in which ability to pay trump's access to medical services based on medical need. Also part of the background is the unanimous agreement on the Sláintecare report.

The Bill, as Deputy Pringle implied, is similar to a Bill he and I introduced in 2014, namely, the Thirty-fourth Amendment of the Constitution (Economic, Social and Cultural Rights) Bill 2014. I welcome Deputy Harty's Bill as it is necessary. It is well-intentioned and I will certainly be voting for it but I do not believe it goes far enough. As Deputy Pringle said, economic, social and cultural rights should be enshrined in Bunreacht na hÉireann. I refer, in particular, to the rights to work, to have just and favourable conditions at work, to form trade unions, to join a trade union of choice, to social security, to the widest possible protection and assistance for families, to an adequate standard of living, to adequate food, clothing and housing, to the highest attainable standards of physical and mental health, to education, and to take part in cultural life.

It is almost 40 years since Ireland ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural rights, in 1989, yet these rights have still not been enshrined in our Constitution. In fact, since 1989 the UN committee responsible for implementation has written to the Irish Government on a number of occasions asking that its measures be implemented. They should be implemented urgently.

See this speech in context