Neasa Hourigan, a member of the Green Party, has submitted a request to rejoin its legislative band, after a 15-month suspension following her vote against a legislative proposal over the eviction prohibition. Having served her suspension since March 2023, which also saw her ousted as chairwoman of the Oireachtas Budgetary Oversight Committee, Ms. Hourigan’s reapplication happens to coincide with the expected end of her suspension.
Ms. Hourigan, representing Dublin Central, didn’t cast her vote in a pair of Dáil ballots held in March of the previous year. These were triggered by a Sinn Féin proposal for extending the eviction moratorium into 2024. Further, she went against the government’s counterproposal.
Her decision to reapply was confirmed earlier this week when she sent an email stating her intention to rejoin the party. “It will be up to the legislative party to decide whether or not to accept my application. I’ve been informed that the next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday,” she mentioned.
Ms. Hourigan is in a two-way race with Senator Róisín Garvey to replace Catherine Martin as the deputy leader of the party. Candidate Ossian Smyth withdrew his nomination on Monday, leaving the two candidates to campaign this week before the online vote involving the party’s 3,425 members.
At the time of her suspension, Ms Hourigan was highly critical of the decision and expressed disappointment that then party leader, Eamon Ryan, did not “voice out for Green Party values and Green Party policy”. This marked the third occasion when she faced a reprimand from the party for not adhering to the group line.
In 2022, she and fellow Green Party TD, Patrick Costello, faced a six-month suspension for voting against the Government on a Sinn Féin Dáil proposal about the newly established National Maternity Hospital (NMH). Additionally, in 2020, shortly after the Government was formed, both Ms. Hourigan and Minister of State Joe O’Brien were denied speaking rights in the Dáil for two months for not voting in line with the Government on a tenant’s rights Bill.