Just three Galway TDs voted against the Government’s counter motion to Sinn Féin’s motion to extend the eviction ban until next year in the Dáil yesterday.
Galway West TDs Catherine Connolly and Mairéad Farrell, and Roscommon-Galway TD Claire Kerrane voted against the Coalition, which ultimately prevailed by 83 votes to 68.
The Government accommodated a range of demands made by Independent TDs before the vote, with local TDs Seán Canney, Denis Naughten and Michael Fitzgerald voting with the Coalition.
The vote ended with Government’s majority being reduced to a single vote after Green Party TD for Dublin Central Neasa Hourigan was suspended for 15 months for voting against the Government.
The Opposition is likely to maintain the pressure over the coming weeks over the controversial decision, with the eviction ban set to expire in nine days’ time.
Sinn Féin’s Housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said that 3,000 families, single people, couples, families with children and pensioners have eviction notices for April.
He said that every TD present yesterday had a clear choice to make.
“Shame on Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Green Party – every one of their backbenchers – and those independent TDs who knowingly chose to make ordinary people in their communities homeless,” he said.
“Many of these people will be forced to move in with family and friends, others will be forced to emigrate because they will be unable to find alternative accommodation.”
