Yes, it does weaken the Government
Green Party leader punishes maverick TDs who voted against Coalition Bill
EAMON Ryan has punished two rogue TDs in his party and warned all Green Party TDs that they cannot vote against the Government.
It comes after Neasa Hourigan was forced to relinquish her role as the party’s chief whip after she voted against a Government Bill and another Green Party TD, junior minister Joe O’Brien, abstained on the same vote.
Meanwhile, following the furore in the Dáil as it adjourned for six weeks on Thursday night, Taoiseach Micheál Martin yesterday washed his hands of the matter, saying it was up to Mr Ryan how he disciplines his party’s TDs.
Legislation was tabled in the Dáil on Thursday to replace the rent freeze and eviction ban, brought in at the start of the pandemic. Ms Hourigan voted against the Government on four proposed amendments to the Bill before voting against the Bill itself in the final vote. Meanwhile, Mr O’Brien, a Minister of State for Rural and Community Development, abstained on the final vote.
The Green Party issued a statement late on Thursday night to say the pair have lost speaking rights for the next two months.
However, speaking yesterday, Mr Ryan confirmed the suspension would include the Dáil recess so their speaking rights would only be lost for two weeks. He added that he believed the sanction was sufficient. ‘Our way of managing this is we go back to our parliamentary party and we decide as a Dáil parliamentary party and that was the approach we decided to take last night,’ he said.
He said failing to vote with the Government ‘weakens’ the Government. ‘We agreed, and it is absolutely clear, you cannot vote against the Government if you’re in Government. You cannot abstain if you’re in Government. It weakens our strength, it weakens Government, it doesn’t work,’ he said. ‘Our own party knows that, our own members know that.’
Mr Ryan said it is up to individual parties to deal with disciplinary matters in their own way.
‘Every party has a different approach. This is not usual circumstances but we had to take into account precedent and also just the circumstances of this moment. It is the last day in the
Dáil. We want to regroup and come back stronger.’
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said yesterday it is up to Mr Ryan as to how he disciplines party members. ‘As far as I’m concerned, there are different ways one can approach this but parties are different and we want to keep the focus on the policy agenda,’ he said.
Meanwhile, Neasa Hourigan has said she was aware of what she was doing and fully expected to be sanctioned at the Green Parliamentary Party after the Dáil session finished. She told RTÉ’s Today With Sarah McInerney she voted against the Government because there wasn’t enough time for her party to properly debate the legislation before the Dáil adjourned for six weeks.
Meanwhile, Joe O’Brien abstained from voting on the Bill because he believed the legislation could have been stronger even with the time constraints.
Commenting on Twitter, he said: ‘The issue of homelessness is an extremely important one for me, I’ve worked in the area, I’ve been a whistleblower in the area, I have friends who work in the NGOs and I feel we need to do everything we can to tackle it. I’m elected in part to be a legislator.
‘I wasn’t convinced this piece of legislation was the best we could have done in what are, to be fair, unusual circumstances. This was mainly due to its extremely rushed nature.’ He added: ‘I knew my vote was not going to defeat the Bill but I felt I also had to give a signal that how it was done was not good enough.’