Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

The programme for Government makes a commitment to hold a referendum on housing. The time of this Government is coming to an end one way or another. It is simply a matter of months before the next election. The Housing Commission went off and proposed wording which states:

1°: The State recognises that having a home is of fundamental importance to quality of life and that access to adequate housing, by facilitating the development of family, social and community relationships, promotes the common good.

2°: The State therefore guarantees to every citizen a right of access to adequate housing and pledges, as far as practicable, by its laws to protect and vindicate that right.

Does the Taoiseach agree with that wording? Does he think a referendum should be held within the lifetime of this Government to insert that into the Constitution? All the indications are that this Government does not seek to vindicate people's right to housing. That is why we have more than 4,000 children growing up in homelessness. I also want to make the point that it is now almost ten years since Jonathan Corrie died not far from the gates of Leinster House. At that time, it was said this was a scourge and should never happen again but, at the weekend, two men drowned tragically. It seems very unlikely that they would have drowned if they had not been rough sleeping. It seems their drowning is linked to their being homeless. I would also say that in the investigation there, something that needs to be looked at is whether the additional barriers that have been erected around the canal had any role to play in where those men had located their tents and whether that contributed to their awful death.

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