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

We have to get onto the other amendments but the Minister did not really respond to the central argument. I heard the Irish Property Owners Association representatives humming and hawing on "Morning Ireland" when they were asked whether they were actually going to take legal action. They did not sound to me like they were going to take action because they do not have a very solid base for doing so. That is the truth. The association could not challenge the measures taken during the Covid pandemic and there is a very sound basis for such measures now. The Minister did not respond to this point but this House has declared an emergency. Is the Minister is now going to stand up and say that emergency is over? No serious person would because the housing emergency has got worse since everybody in this House, across the board, agreed that there was one. I do not believe anyone is suggesting the housing emergency has receded since this House said there was one. That is a basis on which to delimit property rights. Some people do not understand that this is provided for in the existing Constitution. Some want to bring such a provision into the Constitution but it is already there. I mention that for the sake of some of the social media trolls out there.

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