Programme for Government

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 22 February 2018

Thursday, 22 February 2018

Questions (225)

Eoin Ó Broin

Question:

225. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the status of the programme for Government commitment to explore the possibility of enacting a constitutional right to housing; and the way in which the programme for Government commitment to allow the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government to examine the issue affected by the decision to request the Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform and Taoiseach to examine the broader issues of socio-economic rights decided upon by the Citizens' Assembly. [9051/18]

Written answers

Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government

A motion to refer the Eighth Report of the Convention on the Constitution, which dealt with economic, social and cultural rights including the right to housing, to the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach was passed by the Dáil on 28 September 2017 and by the Seanad on 11 October 2017.

As the Deputy will be aware, at the time that the Programme for a Partnership Government was being drawn up, it was considered that the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government would be the most appropriate Committee to consider this issue.  

Given that the rights concerned include rights to social security, essential health care, rights of people with disabilities and linguistic rights, as well as a number of other rights in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, this was subsequently reconsidered and it was decided that the most appropriate Oireachtas Committee to consider this matter was the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform and Taoiseach.