From Article 45 to Article 40A: the proposed right to housing in Ireland

This article examines the proposal to insert a new Article 40A into Bunreacht na hEireann (the Constitution of Ireland) and asks what a constitutional right to housing would change in Irish law. It argues that the referendum would be significant because it would move housing from the non-justiciable shadow of Article 45 into the architecture of constitutional rights. That shift, however, would not of itself secure a robust or directly enforceable entitlement to housing. Drawing on Irish case law on socio-economic rights, housing conditions and constitutional remedies, the article shows that judicial attitudes to distributive justice, separation of powers and mandatory relief will continue to shape the practical reach of any new provision. It contends that the proposed wording, centred on a right of access to adequate housing and a state obligation to protect and vindicate that right as far as practicable, is more likely to support a reasonableness-based model of review than an absolute individual guarantee. The referendum would therefore matter, but its transformative potential would depend on interpretation, institutional willingness and remedial imagination.