{"id":192478,"date":"2021-06-04T16:20:47","date_gmt":"2021-06-04T16:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/?p=1439094"},"modified":"2021-06-04T16:20:47","modified_gmt":"2021-06-04T16:20:47","slug":"constitutional-right-to-housing-is-morally-and-socially-correct-irish-politicians-hear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/06\/04\/constitutional-right-to-housing-is-morally-and-socially-correct-irish-politicians-hear\/","title":{"rendered":"Constitutional right to housing is \u2018morally and socially\u2019 correct, Irish politicians hear"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The constitutional right to housing is \u201cmorally, politically, economically and socially\u201d the right thing to do, the Irish Seanad (Senate) has heard.<\/p>\n<p>A debate on a private member\u2019s bill to amend the Constitution to ensure that every citizen has the right to housing took place on 4 June.<\/p>\n<h5>Housing as a right<\/h5>\n<p>Fianna F\u00e1il Seanad spokesperson on housing senator Mary Fitzpatrick said that a constitutional right to housing would \u201cpermanently assert the state\u2019s responsibility to ensure access for all citizens to adequate, safe and affordable housing\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Fitzpatrick called on minister for housing Darragh O\u2019Brien to \u201cexercise every resource\u201d to ensure that every citizen has a home.<\/p>\n<p>She told the Seanad that the housing crisis has a grip on the country, adding that the number of homeless people is \u201cunacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"nzfUXHdZIG3VnU6kEB9YuBQrZ2PSQTa0jbalpq54cqTztwsy1jC6DGbK2NeV8SLgv1kKyPmFF8lhEhNrmWWgMAxxDJ9eRoY\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">We are calling for the right to housing to be included in the Constitution. As a party, the right to own your own home is a core belief. But we need to go further. It&#39;s about the State making a commitment to ensure that every citizen has access to a secure &amp; affordable home. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/KJTiKQd0zQ\">pic.twitter.com\/KJTiKQd0zQ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Fianna F\u00e1il (@fiannafailparty) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/fiannafailparty\/status\/1400851306189840385?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 4, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/span><\/p>\n<p><!-- EMBED START Twitter --><\/p>\n<figure><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/figure>\n<p><!-- EMBED END Twitter --><\/p>\n<p>Fianna F\u00e1il brought the private member\u2019s motion on 4 June.<\/p>\n<p>Labour senator Rebecca Moynihan said that a constitutional right to housing would make a difference, but added it would not end the housing crisis overnight and is \u201cnot a silver bullet\u201d. She added:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We need to make sure that we have the policy choices and the laws to back that up, to vindicate people\u2019s right to housing, to vindicate to housing standards, to vindicate the right to long lease and to vindicate the right to have a decent standard of living<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h5>Constitutional shift<\/h5>\n<p>The bill would see a right to housing inserted into the Constitution of Ireland. It would amend Article 43 of the Constitution, which covers private property rights, to include that \u201cthe State recognises, and shall vindicate, the right of all persons to have access to adequate housing\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It would also include that \u201cthe State shall, through legislative and other measures, provide for the realisation of this right within its available resources\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>It comes a day after a similar bill proposed by People Before Profit passed the second stage in the Dail.<\/p>\n<p>While the wording of the bill differs slightly from Fianna Fail, it too calls for a right to housing to be included in the Constitution.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"aqkijUysXpnhYTHslN9KgbkIJFGPeG6173mZ5iOu1M6cW8nzpScQFfAq94NzboeZC2QxVI7LPayUC24Xvd3LtW0EvB\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Brilliant news that our <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Right2Housing?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Right2Housing<\/a> bill passed second stage in the D\u00e1il last night. <\/p>\n<p>The tide is turning, and it&#39;s clear that the anger around housing has frightened the government. <\/p>\n<p>They know that if they opposed this bill, there&#39;d be an absolute outcry. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qVYgorUJKX\">pic.twitter.com\/qVYgorUJKX<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; People Before Profit (@pb4p) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pb4p\/status\/1400785128197087236?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 4, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/span><\/p>\n<p><!-- EMBED START Twitter --><\/p>\n<figure><\/figure>\n<h5>&#8220;Going further&#8221;<\/h5>\n<p>Fitzpatrick said the current policies in place to deal with the country\u2019s housing crisis need to go further. She added:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>It\u2019s about the State going further, it\u2019s about the State making a permanent commitment to every citizen that they have access to a secure and affordable home.<\/p>\n<p>During the pandemic, it\u2019s been obvious as to how important a home is to our own personal safety.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s far too many homeless people in our society, it\u2019s an issue we are addressing. There are far too many people who cannot afford to buy their own home or even a secure rental so we are securing that in the legislation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>She said the \u201cunrealistic\u201d policies put forward by other parties is not the way to go. She added:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We want the State to make a permanent commitment that every citizen has a right to their home.<\/p>\n<p>Our Constitution protects and vindicates the right to private property but we want to counterbalance that right.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>She said that she hopes for cross-party support during the debate of the bill in the Seanad.<\/p>\n<p><!-- TRACKING START GA --><script>(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){ (i[r].q=i[r].q||[]).push(arguments)},i[r].l=1*new Date();a=s.createElement(o), m=s.getElementsByTagName(o)[0];a.async=1;a.src=g;m.parentNode.insertBefore(a,m) })(window,document,'script','\/\/www.google-analytics.com\/analytics.js','ga');  ga('create', 'UA-72310761-1', 'auto', {'name': 'pacontentapi'}); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'referrer', location.origin); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension1', 'By Cate McCurry, PA'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension2', '79f8420a-866e-4b33-a0f3-bbbd4685f13a'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension3', 'paservice:news,paservice:news:ireland'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension6', 'story'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension7', 'composite'); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension8', null); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'dimension9', null); ga('pacontentapi.set', 'anonymizeIp', true); ga('pacontentapi.send', 'pageview', { 'location': location.href, 'page': (location.pathname + location.search + location.hash), 'title': 'Constitutional right to housing is u2018morally and sociallyu2019 correct, Seanad hears'});<\/script><!-- TRACKING END GA --><\/p>\n<p><em>Featured image via &#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pixabay.com\/photos\/architecture-house-old-church-3020932\/\">Pixabay &#8211; RichardMc<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>By <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/author\/thecanary\/\">The Canary<\/a><\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/global\/world-news\/2021\/06\/04\/constitutional-right-to-housing-is-morally-and-socially-correct-irish-politicians-hear\/\">The Canary<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A debate on a private member\u2019s bill to amend the Constitution to ensure every citizen has the right to housing took place in the Seanad on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>By <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/author\/thecanary\/\">The Canary<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1541,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[365,905,2060,4,12596],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192478"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1541"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=192478"}],"version-history":[{"count":67,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":202730,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192478\/revisions\/202730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}