Thread by @gavreilly

🚨 Neasa Hourigan has just voted against the Government

Dáil was voting on a Labour amendment to Govt’s new tenancy Bill, which renews rent freeze/evictions moratorium - but only for those who self-certify as having financial distress

Labour wanted to extend it on a blanket basis; Govt says unconstitutional; Hourigan supported anyway

Ironically Hourigan herself is the Green Party’s Dáil whip, so the immediate disciplinary process is unclear

I understand Hourigan has no desire to leave the Green parliamentary party

ℹ️ Neasa Hourigan has resigned as Green Party whip but intends to remain a member of the parliamentary party

Hourigan has just voted against the government for a second time - she supported a cross-party amendment which would have removed any criminal sanction for those who fraudulently self-certify as experiencing financial distress

…and now for a third time, supporting a SocDems amendment which aimed to extend the rental protections to all tenants and not just those in financial trouble.

A final vote on the Bill is to be held at 6pm and may be seen as sealing her future.

…and a fourth time, backing a SF bid to extend the rental protection to all tenants and not just those in rent arrears

…and a fifth time.

Hourigan has voted against the government’s Bill as a whole, an act which is much more likely to see her stripped of the party whip. #Dáil

(It also seems another Green TD abstained on the final vote?)

Statement from @JTG_ie on why Hourigan opposed the Govt’s Bill

🚨 Junior minister Joe O’Brien - a pro-coalition Green TD - abstained in the final vote on his own government’s Bill

Statement from @neasa_neasa on her vote against the Government's tenancy legislation this evening