THE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR for the Green Party has deleted a tweet in which he said his own party’s TD Neasa Hourigan was not a sensible person. 

A spokesperson for the party said Thomas Molloy meant to send the message to a friend and never meant for it to be read publicly.

Responding to a tweet from RTÉ’s Upfront with Katie Hannon programme, Molloy said that there was “not one sensible person” on the panel for the show, which aired on Monday night. 

Neasa Hourigan was present on the panel, alongside Fianna Fáil TD Paul McAuliffe, Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin and former Housing Agency chair Conor Skehan. 

The tweet has since been deleted. 

In a statement to The Journal, a spokesperson for the Green Party said: “Tom accidentally tweeted a message which he had meant to text a friend.

“He apologises to Neasa as he never intended for the message to be read publicly.”

Hourigan recently re-joined the party alongside Dublin South-Central TD Patrick Costello after both were suspended for six months for voting against the Government motion on the new National Maternity Hospital, calling for it to be built on public land instead.

She has recently been critical of the government’s decision to end the eviction ban on 31 March. 

Speaking on the programme, she said she was “shocked” to see the ban lifted and accused the coalition leaders, including her own party leader Eamon Ryan, of lifting the ban “with no real preparation”.

She also said that “kids will moved out of their schools because there is nowhere to stay in their communities”.

The Journal contacted Hourigan for comment.