A NUMBER OF Green Party councillors have criticised the decision to suspend Neasa Hourigan from the parliamentary party after she voted against the government in yesterday’s motion on the ending of the eviction ban.
After the vote, the Greens announced that its parliamentary party had agreed to remove the party whip and suspend Hourigan for at least 15 months.
Hourigan will also lose her positions on Oireachtas committees, including chair of the budgetary oversight committee.
Green Party councillor for East Cork Liam Quaide told RTÉ’s Drivetime that he thought there was “unease” among the party’s members and representatives about what the action says about the party’s priorities.
“I think it’s a sad reflection on our parliamentary party that their idea of taking a stand is to remove Neasa and close down all her invaluable Oireachtas committee work for 15 months, at a time when there was such widespread and legitimate frustration with government because of the scale of the housing crisis,” Quaide said.
“I think taking a stand on behalf of hardpressed tenants facing homelessness would be more reflective of Green Party values.
“We all understand the need for compromising in governments and the need for unity, but I think in this instance, we have many housing experts, we have homelessness agencies telling us that this measure will make a dire situation worse, and Neasa shouldn’t have been in the position of having to vote on the eviction ban in the first place.”
Dún Laoghaire Rathdown councillor Oísin O’Connor told the programme that the decision was “very unpopular” among the party’s membership.
“The parliamentary party need to realise that they are walking on fairly dicey territory to be issuing such severe sanctions on a very popular TD among the membership,” O’Connor said.
He said that all of the messages that he had received from members “have all been negative in regards to the severity of the sanctions”.
“This is fairly widespread. There are people who are genuinely very supportive of our parliamentary party who are now questioning their decision making on this. This is this is definitely something that has upset a lot of members.”
Quaide added that he strongly believes “that our parliamentary party is departing from our core party commitment to protect the most vulnerable in society”.
“And I don’t believe there’s enough critical distance between us and our government partners on this. As Neasa herself has said, we can’t expect people who are facing homelessness to engage with the climate crisis,” he said.
“If you’ve got young children settled in schools, and you’re looking at that kind of upheaval, or you have a child with special needs and you’re facing eviction in a number of weeks, you’re not in a place to engage with environmental issues, and it’s decisions like this will actually alienate voters, and particularly young people, from the green cause.”
A number of other Greens have also voiced criticism of Hourigan’s suspension on social media.
In a tweet, former Lord Mayor of Dublin Hazel Chu said it was a “deeply disappointing and excessively harsh decision”, adding that she was with Hourigan “all the way”.
Balbriggan councillor Karen Power said on Twitter that the party “should be ashamed” of the decision.
“A disproportionate and shockingly harsh punishment for a party TD who spoke on behalf of the vulnerable in our society and for Party Policy,” she said.
This is a deeply disappointing and excessively harsh decision. With you all the way @neasa_neasa ! https://t.co/OlLUDrwrFR
— Hazel Chu (@hazechu) March 22, 2023
Cork councillor Oliver Moran tweeted that he was “gravely disappointed at the decision”.
“Taken without due notice, while Neasa was chairing an Oireachtas committee and so unable to be at the meeting. Length and severity of the sanction is gratuitous and self-defeating.”
Speaking this morning, Minister of State Pippa Hackett said that while Hourigan is “held in very high esteem”, she is expected to vote with the government.
“Anybody who knows Neasa Hourigan knows she’s very able, she’s a hardworking politician and makes really valuable contributions,” Hackett said.
“But Neasa is a Government TD. Government TDs are expected to vote in line with the Government. We simply can’t have a functioning Government without that basic principle.”
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