Kathleen Funchion Urges Enshrining Economic, Social Rights in Law

Thanks, first of all I want to commend Deputy Pringle and say that we will be supporting the motion, Sinn Fein has a long track record on advocating for the rights of people and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights has been a key treaty in progressing the rights of people around the world, in 1989 Ireland ratified the economic, social and cultural rights of its citizens and agreed to be legally bound by the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, this international treaty sets out the right for all people to self-determination but these rights to self-determination are only partially recognised in our Constitution and are further restricted by Article 45 which seeks to further limit this treaty by explicitly stating that the principles of social policy are intended for general guidance of the Oireachtas only and are not recognisable by law. It is important that all TDs support this motion and we must act to protect Irish citizens' economic, social and cultural rights and enshrine that protection in law. It is important to remember that this bill seeks to strengthen the right to adequate housing, the right to be free from hunger, the right to an education and the right to an adequate standard of living. Contained within this treaty is the right to earn a living and to enjoy a safe and healthy work environment and the right to attain the highest standard of physical and mental health. And even just in that paragraph alone I imagine there is a huge amount of people that are not earning a decent living, that certainly do not have a safe and healthy work environment and are certainly suffering particularly in relation to mental health and particularly in our track record in this country of not dealing with that issue. The right to an affordable home, the right to live somewhere in security, peace and dignity, free of discrimination, these essential social rights must be protected and strengthened. There is little doubt that we are in the middle of a housing crisis, a crisis that has emerged through years of neglect by successive governments. What we have allowed is for the Irish property market to be placed in the hands of companies seeking to maximise profit rather than to provide homes. A property market based on greed. What we see in practice is those looking for a home are continually pushed out into a rental market that is prohibitively expensive. And certainly anybody that can qualify for a HAP, the housing assistance payment, those houses are nearly impossible to find and then totally unaffordable when you can find one. Our housing spokesperson, Oona Breen, has continuously raised this in this house, the issue of Ireland's appalling housing policies and it is now more important than ever to realise this treaty and law. Housing cannot simply be determined by the government of the day, our approach must be bigger and it must be enshrined in our laws. We have a poor track record in ratifying international treaties. In 2017, we were found in violation of our citizens' human rights in relation to a failure to enshrine the right to housing and an adequate standard of living for people in social housing. Several reports by UN bodies, notably in 1999 and 2002, stated that despite substantial recommendations, no steps to date have been taken by government to incorporate or reflect this treaty in domestic legislation. The government's inability to ratify the optional protocol of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities not alone has caused enormous upset in Ireland. It has also drawn huge criticism from various advocates and representative groups and that is one that I would in particular like to highlight as we have called continuously as so many other parties in this chamber too. And also all of the advocacy groups that deal with people with additional needs have constantly called for that to be ratified. And the reality is the government has not ratified it because that will give people an actual right. You know, they will actually be able to take the government to court in relation to all of the inaction, all of the waiting lists, all of the failures. These two cases demonstrate that we must act to bring Ireland's law in line with international norms. The importance of economic, social and cultural rights must be recognised by this House. I would ask all TDs to support this bill and this motion today. Thank you.