Right to housing ‘should be enshrined’

THE Constitution should be changed to enshrine properly the right to housing and force the Government to be accountable to its citizens and public bodies, an Oireachtas committee heard yesterday.

Addressing the All-Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution, the Simon Communities of Ireland and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) said the only way to guarantee an end to homelessness was through a constitutional guarantee.

Simon Communities social policy and research coordinator Noeleen Hartigan, said housing needed to be enshrined as a right if Ireland’s growing problem of homelessness was to be turned around.

“It’s very important that this be made part of the Constitution, because then if social policies or legislation continues to fail the needs of the people who need it they will have recourse through the courts,” she said.

ICCL director Ashling Reidy told the hearing that the obligations of the Government in relation to housing had not been met despite its legal obligations to take measures to rectify the situation.

Calling for numerous international rights to housing to be included in the Constitution, Ms Reidy said the right to private property would not be adversely affected. “The right to enjoyment and protection of private property does not prevent the pursuit of policies which lead to the full implementation of the right to housing. Those policies must simply not interfere with private property rights in an arbitrary or discriminatory manner,” she said.

Yesterday’s hearing was the first in the latest series of meetings, after which the committee will make recommendations to the Government on all aspects of property ownership, including the suggestion, made in April by the Taoiseach, that a cap be put on the price of development land.

The idea of such a cap was first mooted in a 1974 report by Mr Justice Kenny, which recommended that speculation in building land be ended by forcing owners to sell at current agricultural prices.

Other issues included in the committee’s deliberations include planning , access to the countryside, infra-

structural development, ground rents, house prices, the zoning of land, compulsory purchase, affordable housing, the right to shelter, the right to private property, the cost of building land, ownership rights, private property and the common good.

Committee chairman Denis O’Donovan said he hoped to make recommendations to the Government next year.