Vol. 568 No. 1
706 Mr. Cuffe asked the Minister for the Environment Heritage and Local Government if he will make available any research he has from his officials on the right to housing that was undertaken in response to the draft bill of rights being set by the Human Rights Commission in Northern Ireland. [15335/03]
No specific research on the right to housing has been carried out by my Department in response to the draft bill of rights set by the Human Rights Commission in Northern Ireland. The National Economic and Social Council examined the broad issue of social and economic rights in their report, An Investment in Quality: Services, Inclusion and Enterprise. It emphasised the complex philosophical, political, legal and practical issues involved in the identification, creation, in legislating for and vindicating rights, especially social and economic rights. Accordingly, in the new national agreement, Sustaining Progress, particular emphasis is placed on ensuring that standards of public services are identified, monitored and achieved. This requires further substantive improvements in the delivery of quality public services, including housing, and requires a renewed focus on setting and achieving standards for the delivery of such services and monitoring progress.
The Government considers that the most appropriate way of addressing the rights issue in housing is to continue the various programmes and fiscal incentives currently in place, to secure the necessary level of funding to support them, to review their operation on an ongoing basis to ensure they are meeting their objectives and to put in place new programmes or measures as required.
