Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the questions asked about the referendum on housing, in line with commitments in the programme for Government and in Housing for All - a New Housing Plan for Ireland, the Housing Commission was established by the Government in December 2021 to independently examine and review the housing system in Ireland. The Housing Commission submitted its report, proposed wording for an amendment to the Constitution, and made recommendations to the Minister in August. The report and the next steps are currently being considered and the Minister will bring these to Government in due course. A minority report from two members of the commission has also recently been received only in the past few days. Neither have gone to Government yet and I believe that the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage will also want to consider the two reports.

I will restate in the House that I support a housing amendment to the Constitution provided it is a good one. I strongly believe that any housing amendment has to make it easier to build homes. Otherwise it will be meaningless. We see too many planning permissions for new homes being struck down in the courts. A strong housing amendment could tip the balance in favour of the courts approving these planning permissions rather than striking them down on various different grounds. That is the litmus test for me when it comes to any housing amendment. If it just creates a new right to sue for compensation, that is problematic. I do not want to see the housing budget being diverted into compensation payments or see housing officials spending their time managing litigation when they should be managing projects that build houses.

On the neutrality question, there are no plans for a referendum on neutrality. Ultimately we believe that matters of foreign policy and defence policy should be made by the Government and the Oireachtas and not by the courts. There is no clear definition of neutrality. It means different things to different people. To me, it means not joining a military alliance. I know that to Deputy Murphy it means something else and to other people it means something else again. That is one reason it would not be a good idea to put something like that in the Constitution.

On the latest motion on Israel, it is very clear in the Government's countermotion that we refer to Hamas in one paragraph and refer to Israel very clearly in another paragraph. In fact we use the term "deplores" in relation to Israel's actions in Gaza.

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