People Before Profit call for no watering down of Right to Housing Bill as Government signal it will not be opposed passage to committee stage
Government must deal with double rent increases and upcoming evictions urgently
People Before Profit spokesperson on housing, Richard Boyd Barrett TD, has said that there must be no watering down of the Right to Housing Bill which the government signaled yesterday would not be opposed on its way to committee stage.
Speaking ahead of tonight’s debate on the People Before Profit Right to Housing Bill, he said: “The government last night signaled that they would not be opposing this Bill on its way to committee stage, which is to be welcomed. However, we will continue to build a broad campaign to make sure that the Bill is not watered down during the legislative process and that we achieve a referendum so that the right to housing can be included as part of the common good in the constitution. Including the right to secure and affordable housing in the constitution would mean that any future government would not be able to rely on constitutional arguments to avoid introducing eviction bans and effective rent controls.
“The only acceptable outcome is a referendum which proposes to insert the right to housing into the constitution. If this Bill were to pass into law, and a referendum was won, it would remove the constitutional excuses for the government not bringing in effective rent controls and a ban a on evictions.”
The TD added: “We want this Bill to progress through the legislative cycle as quickly as possible, but in the interim the government need to deal with the urgent housing issue that face us. They must deal with the issues of double rent increases and the ability for evictions to take place while we wait for a referendum to be called on the right to housing.”
A demonstration will take place outside the Convention Centre in Dublin at 5pm today on the right to housing. Housing campaigners will be joined by residents from St Helen’s Court in Dún Laoghaire, who are facing imminent eviction, will be in attendance.