Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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327. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will establish a constitutional convention to enshrine the right to housing in the Constitution. [29443/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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A Convention on the Constitution was established in 2012 to discuss proposed amendments to the Constitution.  The Eighth Report issued by the Convention dealt with the matter of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and was published in March 2014. The most popular option for reform was the insertion of a provision into the Constitution that "the State shall progressively realise economic, social and cultural rights, subject to maximum available resources and that this duty is cognisable by the Courts". In relation to which specific rights should be enumerated in the Constitution, these included rights to housing, social security, essential health care, rights of people with disabilities, linguistic and cultural rights and the rights covered in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The commitments in relation to constitutional reform in the Programme for Government provide for the holding of a referendum on housing. The Programme for Government also commits to establishing a Commission on Housing to examine issues such as tenure, standards, sustainability, and quality-of-life issues in the provision of housing.  It is planned that the Commission on Housing will review the commitment to hold a referendum on housing, once it has been formally established in September this year, and the Terms of Reference and Membership of the Commission have been finalised. The Report of the Convention on the Constitution will be available for consideration by the Commission.