The Government has been accused of failing to implement and publicise human rights legislation introduced two years ago which could leave public bodies open to an avalanche of legal challenges.
Dr Pádraic Kenna, a law lecturer at NUI Galway described the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003 as "the Government's best kept secret".
He told 350 delegates attending the National Social Housing Conference in Sligo that the Act, "the least publicised outcome of the Good Friday agreement" required the State to act positively to ensure that the rights of Irish citizens and other people within the State were not infringed.
Dr Kenna said this would have huge implications for housing policy and could leave local authorities open to legal actions by, for example, people living in sub-standard sites who under the Act could argue that they had been subjected to "inhuman and degrading treatment".
He said the "great silence" about the Act meant that most people in Ireland, including solicitors, civil servants and housing agencies had not even heard of the legislation two years after its implementation and 50 years after Ireland first signed up to the convention.
"The approach appears to be that the Government is burying its head in the sand hoping people don't know their rights," said Dr Kenna. "Look at the amount of publicity surrounding the Race Against Waste and compare it to the silence surrounding this."
He stressed that the Act also had "massive implications" for health service providers and agencies catering for the disabled in terms of being left waiting for treatment or people without access to basic facilities.
One or two "high profile" cases in the Irish courts could well cause a sea change with auditors warning county managers and other public bodies not to leave themselves at risk, said Dr Kenna.
Opening the conference, Minister for Housing and Urban Renewal Noel Ahern warned opponents of the controversial Planning and Development Act 2000, which requires 20 per cent of new housing estates to be used for social and affordable accommodation, that the measure was here to stay.
"The people who don't like it will have to get used to it because that is the way forward," he said.
The Irish Council for Social Housing - which organised the conference - expressed disappointment that the Department of the Environment had still not produced updated figures for housing waiting lists which were expected yesterday.
Executive director Donal McManus said it was difficult to plan for social housing needs while working from figures which were three years old.
In 2002 there were 48,000 households on the waiting lists but the council believes that immigration and other new trends such as family break-ups mean the figure is now much higher.
