Green TD could be stripped of €10k Oireachtas committee role if she votes against Government
With Neasa Chaney/ Photos Picture: Face Collins Government Is Voting The "strong Sanctions" Gareth Hourigan For Not To
Green Party TD Neasa Hourigan could be stripped of a powerful Oireachtas Committee chair position after declaring she will vote against the Government on an evictions ban motion later this week.
Ms Hourigan is to face "strong sanctions" for not voting with the Government, while fellow party member Patrick Costello has yet to make his voting intentions known.
Sinn Féin's housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin has also contacted Independent TDs who have previously supported the Government ahead of the vote on Wednesday.
Ms Hourigan, who had expressed significant concerns after the Cabinet decided not to extend the eviction moratorium, said she will be supporting the motion, which calls on the Government to leave the support for renters in place until next year.
Green Party chair Pauline O'Reilly said Ms Hourigan will face tougher sanctions than those imposed on her and Mr Costello when they previously lost the whip and were suspended for six months after voting against the Government on a maternity hospital Dáil vote last year.
Ms O'Reilly said everything — including stripping of the chairmanship of the Oireachtas Budgetary Committee, which comes with a stipend of nearly €10,000 — will be "on the table".
"I think it's fair to say that there will be sanctions and that the sanctions will go beyond sanctions that were previously there.
"As the smallest party in Government, it's absolutely essential that we get the other parties to vote on things that maybe they don't feel comfortable voting on, particularly around climate action. We all knew going into Government meant that there are times where we have to vote for things that we don't feel comfortable about.
"I think it's also clear that this motion this week isn't actually going to achieve anything. So I think it's very disappointing all round to vote against Government," she told the .
Ms O'Reilly said that she was "disappointed by the lack of communication," from Ms Hourigan, who made her intentions known in a column in the Sunday Independent.
She said the vote was not about policy, but mindset.
“It’s about a sense of urgency, and about what this housing crisis looks like on the ground. It’s about priorities. There are hundreds of children in my constituency who are homeless, or facing homelessness through eviction next month.
“There are no more hotel rooms in which to place them.
“Even before the ban is lifted, many families are already living in hotels — with small babies, teenagers and adults all in the same room; single men and women with disabilities in unsafe homes, too scared to complain.
“The eviction ban has been criticised for storing up further difficulties for a later date, for discouraging landlords from the market, and for not reducing homelessness in a meaningful way.
“In reality, the eviction ban was never there to deal with any of those issues. Its purpose was to provide a breathing space for policy-makers to enact changes that would benefit both tenants and landlords alike.”
Ms Hourigan said the decision made by the coalition leaders “had not been flagged as an inevitability”.
She added: “There is still no transparency around how the decision was made — or what, if any, measures to mitigate the terrible impacts of the decision were discussed. The proposals, hastily announced, were not detailed.
“If anything, the window between lifting the ban on March 31 and delivering detailed proposals to alleviate the consequences of that decision in June (a full three months later) is likely to create a 90-day free-for-all.”
A Green Party spokesperson said TDs "are expected to vote in line with the Government. The parliamentary party will discuss this matter over the coming days."
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald called on the Government to "do the right thing" and extend the eviction ban beyond next month, adding that she "cannot fathom" why Ministers are have opted to lift the moratorium.
She said the majority of local authorities have made clear that they do not have capacity to provide emergency accommodation for families or individuals who may find themselves homeless in the weeks and months ahead after the ban is lifted.
"This is a really, really worrying time for so many families, working families who pay their taxes, pay their bills, they're doing their best for their families and and so many of them will face just a nightmare scenario," Ms McDonald said.
While the vote will not be binding, if Sinn Féin manage to get enough votes it would be a strongly symbolic defeat for the Government.