Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last week I attended the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, at which the issue of Hungary and the opening of a monitoring procedure was discussed in depth both in committee and in the plenary session. In 2012 the Hungarian Government passed a law defining homelessness as an administrative offence, with the result that people who get caught sleeping on the street twice in six months can be punished with incarceration or monetary penalties that no homeless person could afford. After the country's constitutional court annulled the law for violating the human dignity of the homeless, their legal certainty and their right to property, the constitution was changed in March to reinforce the political decision to criminalise homeless people.

I realise that Budapest's capacity has been stretched to its limits, but deep poverty needs to be cured rather than banned. The United Nations has reported that an estimated 8,000 homeless people live in Budapest and between 30,000 and 35,000 are homeless in the country as a whole. The unemployment rate in Hungary is 10.9%. Homeless rights advocates have argued that shelters are overcrowded and are calling on the Hungarian Government to focus on providing affordable housing rather than temporary accommodation. According to an independent research team called the Third of February Working Group, there were only 10,205 official beds for the homeless in 2012. The UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty, human rights and the right to adequate housing has called on Hungary to revise its laws criminalising homelessness and stated that homeless persons should not be deprived of their basic rights to liberty, privacy, personal security and the protection of their family solely because they are poor and in need of shelter.

Hungary is obliged under the European Social Charter, the Council of Europe treaty and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to vindicate the right to adequate housing. The EU recognises the right to social housing and housing assistance in order to combat social exclusion and poverty, and in June 2010 it adopted the Europe 2020 strategy to promote social inclusion.

Homelessness is one of the most extreme forms of poverty and social deprivation. This law is an unacceptable violation of human dignity. The right to housing as set out in Article 31 of the revised European Social Charter should be guaranteed and Hungary should fulfil its obligations under Article 12.

A policy of repression and criminalisation is no answer to social problems. The Hungarian Government should revoke the law that makes it a crime to be homeless. It raises serious human rights concerns and is very difficult to reconcile with Hungary's human rights obligations. It defies logic to punish the poorest people in society just because they live on the streets. Fines and imprisonment will do nothing to address the fundamental problems which lead to homelessness.

I ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade to set out the position Ireland is taking in respect of these laws, the deliberations he has undertaken with his Hungarian counterpart and whether the issue was raised during the Presidency, particularly in the context of human rights.