A Green Party minister has said the decision to suspend Deputy Neasa Hourigan from the parliamentary party after she voted against the Government last night was not easy or comfortable.
However, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Pippa Hackett said that Ms Hourigan is a Government TD and that means voting with the coalition on difficult issues.
“We have to vote through the easy votes and the tough ones too,” Senator Hackett told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
The margin of victory for the coalition was considerable but so too the fallout.
The Green Party took decisive action against Ms Hourigan, including taking away her positions on Oireachtas committees.
The Dublin Central TD had been chairperson of the budgetary oversight committee.
The Green Party said it regretted having to take these steps, but said effectiveness in Government relied on unity in every vote.
This means the Government now has a majority of just one and so discussions with Independents TDs are likely again ahead of next week’s no confidence motion in the coalition to be tabled by the Labour Party this morning.
However, one of the changes it agreed with the Regional Independent Group, to allow people in nursing homes to retain all income from renting their home, is causing concern among some in Government.
Minister Mary Butler, who has responsibility for older people, fears it could lead to what she called the premature entry of people into nursing homes.
The no confidence motion will be debated and voted on in the Dáil next week.
The Dáil Business Committee is likely to discuss the scheduling of the motion when it meets this morning.
Minister Hackett said the Government numbers are “secure” ahead of the vote.
A ‘cold, cruel and heartless’ decision
Sinn Féin Finance Spokesperson Pearse Doherty said that the Government has taken a cold, cruel and heartless decision to make people homeless.
He told the Dáil that very few people will find alternative accommodation, many will be forced to move into the box room in other family homes, and they will become the hidden homeless.
Government have not answered where people to go when they are evicted at the end of the month, he said.
Responding, the Tánaiste said that extending the eviction ban indefinitely would do more harm than good.
Micheál Martin accused Sinn Féin of objecting to more than 11,000 homes across the country.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik said the Government does not have a plan to meet the needs of people when the ban ends in eight days’ time.
In the Dáil, she dismissed the Government’s latest proposals as “last minute dot com” and said they would not make an “iota of difference” to those about to be “turfed out of the homes”.
The Dublin South deputy claimed the Government had “lost control” of the housing crisis and was introducing measures, like ending the ban, without an evidence-based approach.
In reply, Mr Martin said retaining the eviction ban would “damage” housing supply and “make the situation worse.”
He said the “easy thing” for the Opposition to do was to call for “rent freezes and indefinitely extend bans” but he contended this would only add to insecurity.
The Tánaiste added that the Government strategy was to retain landlords in the market, and entice new people to enter, in order to boost supply.
He said it was a “myth” for Opposition parties like Labour to state that nothing was due while the eviction ban had been in place since October.
No ‘formal’ deals with independents
The Taoiseach said there were no “formal” constituency deals with Independents in return for their support in last night’s Dáil vote.
Speaking in Brussels, Leo Varadkar said: “We are a coalition Government, we do have a majority, but there are a number of Independents who vote with us a lot of the time. And that helps to give us an even more secure majority than we would have without them.
“There is an ongoing engagement with Independents on constituency issues but no formal agreement in that sense.”
Mr Varadkar said that he had not personally discussed next week’s vote of confidence in the Government with Independent TDs.
“This isn’t the first motion of confidence we’ve had in the Government or in a Government minister. There’s one every two or three months. It will be defeated, it will be defeated by a significant margin. It is largely political theatre.”
He said that, as with previous governments, the coalition would speak to “like-minded Independents” who do not want an election next week or in three weeks’ time.
“There are sensible, reasonable Independents and we would talk to them about issues that are of concern that we’d have, on national issues and consistency issues, just as we do with our own TDs. That’s not forgotten or over backbenchers. So there’s nothing unusual about that.”
Mr Varadkar added: “Let’s not forget what a motion conference means. That means an election in four weeks’ time. Does anyone really think that’s going to solve any of our problems? I don’t think so.”
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Depaul charity operating at full capacity
The homeless charity Depaul said the ending of the eviction ban on 31 March will pose a challenge for the service.
Chief Executive David Carroll said the biggest difficulty is the uncertainty over how many people will present as homeless in the coming weeks.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr Carroll said that Depaul operates over 626 temporary accommodation beds throughout the country and these are fully utilised with a low turnover.
He said that 1,000 leases promised by Government will be critical in order to create room in the temporary accommodation system.
Mr Carroll said the “devil will be in the detail” of State schemes and proposals.
Additional reporting Mícheál Lehane, Paul Cunningham and Tony Connelly
Move to suspend Hourigan over vote not easy – Hackett
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