Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The legislation is being allowed to proceed to Committee Stage, but the Government will bring forward an approach to the insertion of a right to housing in the Constitution. It may be different from the construct suggested by Deputy Murphy, but Government parties are committed to a right to housing in the Constitution and will set about preparing for that in a proper, comprehensive and constructive way. That in itself will not solve the immediate issues or the issues over the next while in terms of building more houses. As I said earlier - I really mean this - there are too many people on councils across the country objecting too many housing projects. We all accept that there is a crisis in terms of housing for renters and people who cannot get housing, be that social housing or otherwise, and there is not enough affordable housing for people to buy. It is a crisis. If we all accept that, then we all need to act accordingly as well. We do not have the luxury of opposing housing schemes that could provide 1,200 houses in a given area or 500 houses in another area-----

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