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Speeches:
Ciarán's Dáil speech on the Twenty-seventh Amendment of the Constitution (No. 2) Bill 2003:
Constitutional
Right to Housing
11
November 2003
Mr. Cuffe:
The Green Party supports the amendment to the Constitution before the House today. It is high time that recognition was given to a right to housing within the Constitution. While much can be done without having this article in the Constitution, it is worth inserting it to enshrine the right to housing so that there can be no excuses the next time the Government is asked why it is not providing proper housing or dealing with the issue of waiting lists.
Since the Government was formed 18 months ago, we have got a series of excuses for not reaching our targets and achieving the kind of success that was boldly advertised in the Government parties' manifestos. We were promised various initiatives to provide vast amounts of new housing. These promises have proved long on rhetoric but short on substance.
We should look at underused State-owned land, such as army barracks and land owned by other State institutions to ensure it is turned around and made available to housing in the short term rather than being put on the long finger. Why are vast tracts of land still lying idle in Dublin's docklands? Why is Clancy Barracks, along with many other army barracks, still lying completely unoccupied? Cathal Brugha Barracks in Rathmines is on 70 acres of prime land and is significantly underused. Clancy Barracks is on another 20 or 30 acres of land. We should use this land to provide decent housing. It can be a mixture of public and private initiatives. We do not believe that either the private sector or local authorities have everything to give in this regard. We want to see a mixture of housing provided and we feel the entire spectrum of housing agencies can help in doing that.
We want to give greater attention to the voluntary and the co-operative sectors, which are much talked about but have not in practice received the kind of support they deserve from central Government. We are witnessing a continual sell-off of land by local authorities. In my county of Dun Laoghaire - Rathdown, a huge site in the heart of Stillorgan is being sold off because the Government is not allocating the funding to local authorities to provide the housing they should in order to reduce housing waiting lists. Local authorities are strapped for cash and central Government sits there with its arms folded saying: "Go out there and build houses." It is not good enough to say this and claim local authorities have the resources to do this when local authorities find their services are being cut back and they find it difficult to provide capital funding for housing.
Mr. N. Ahern: To which site is the Deputy referring?
Mr. Cuffe: I am referring to a specific site in the heart of Stillorgan. Rather than dwelling on specific sites that should be developed in the short term, I want to stress that the Green Party supports the proposal to change the Constitution. This will help to ensure the Government is not let off the hook as it has been in the past when the Taoiseach pleaded problems with the Constitution in providing a right to housing. We look forward to this article taking its true place in the Constitution.
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last updated 13 March 2006
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