Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

We need a referendum on the right to housing. I submitted a Bill to that effect, looking to change Article 43 of the Constitution to delimit the rights of private property in order to vindicate the right to affordable, dignified and appropriate housing for all in the last couple of weeks. The Taoiseach should support that Bill and fast-track the move towards a referendum.

The scandal of land hoarding and sitting on empty buildings was an outrage prior to Covid but now it is absolutely unjustifiable. I will give an example of why this is important. I met a woman who I would say was in her 80s on South Great George's Street. This was during the height of the lockdown. She pulled me aside and said she wanted me to walk up Aungier Street and look at a block on that street to see the disgrace of a line of buildings sitting empty for a decade at least that could be used to house people in the south inner city where there is desperate overcrowding and many people on housing lists.

I met a social worker who works in that area on the street on the way in today and he told me there has been a Covid-19 outbreak there today. He pointed out that his community centre, where social distancing was possible, will close down because property developers want to develop the site. The problem is evident in that little microcosm. Private property ownership by landlords, developers or speculators is preventing the development of sites that could be used for housing in an area where there is chronic overcrowding in the social housing sector and where there is a lack of social housing. That property should just be taken by the State to provide the housing people need in the area. Instead, it is sitting there taunting people who are now suffering Covid-19 outbreaks. What are they supposed to do if they are in overcrowded housing where two or three generations - as is happening all over the place - are living cheek by jowl? How do they socially distance or self-isolate where there is Covid-19? We need aggressive action and the Constitution needs to be amended to say that private property rights cannot trump the need for immediate action to take property, refurbish it and provide housing for people who need it so they do not have to live in overcrowded, dangerous and unhealthy conditions.

See this speech in context