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

I also want to ask when the referendum will take place on the right to housing that the Government promised, and when it would be inserted into the Constitution. Will it renege on the promise to have that referendum during the course of this Government or will it keep that promise? I have no doubt that the Taoiseach may say - because he has certainly said it in the past - that inserting a right to housing in the Constitution does not solve the housing crisis. Before he says it, of course we all understand that this is the case. To solve the housing crisis we need to dramatically upscale the delivery of public and affordable housing, we need to control rents and make them affordable, we need to protect tenants against unfair evictions, we need to take far more robust and radical measures to deal with the scandal of vacant and derelict property, and we need to deal with the problem of vulture funds exploiting the housing crisis for their own ends, all of which the Government has largely failed to deliver. A right to housing would put significant additional pressure on a government to ensure it was a priority for that government to use its resource to ensure that everybody has a basic right to that which people need to simply function in society, namely, a secure and affordable roof over their head, and that this would be an imperative for any and all governments to ensure this was the case. Will we have this referendum and when? Apart from anything else, it would be a welcome opportunity to force a national debate on this issue and to hear the views the people in this country who are impacted by this crisis.

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