Coalition bedlam
■ Ructions in Green Party as Neasa Hourigan rebels on vote ■ Varadkar denies conspiracy over the State car for Coveney ■ …and all this as 85 new Covid cases put pubs’ opening in peril
FORMER Green Party whip Neasa Hourigan is not afraid to make her opinion heard regardless of the party line.
Last night’s display of defiance, where she voted against the Government five times, was another example of her apparent disdain for the two Civil War parties.
A savvy political operator, Ms Hourigan has said she learned a lot from her father Michael, a former Limerick city councillor for Fine Gael – apart from her political views, that is.
The rebel TD grew up in Limerick and went to school at Laurel Hill Coláiste. From there she went on to what was Dublin Institute of Technology to study for an undergraduate degree in Architecture before getting a masters in the same field at University College Dublin and, following that, a PHD from Queen’s University Belfast.
While she isn’t on the same level as eco-socialist firebrand Saoirse McHugh, who recently quit the party, the Dublin Central TD is from the same school of thought as many of the new Greens.
In fact, People Before Profit tried to nab Ms Hourigan after she abstained from the Green’s parliamentary party vote to enter Government.
The 39-year-old joined the Green Party in 2011 while living in Cabra and working as an architect.
Her first outing in electoral politics was a success when she was elected to Dublin City Council during the 2019 local elections.
One of Ms Hourigan’s strengths lies in policy and she was the Green party chair in policy for a year, housing being an issue that is particularly close to her heart.
Indeed, during the Green Party debate on whether to go into coalition with Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, she claimed the Programme for Government would ‘make the homelessness crisis worse’.
Ms Hourigan is a carer for her
eldest daughter who has a sight disability. She has two other children with her husband, who suffers from a heart condition.
Ms Hourigan had campaigned for a national unity government involving all TDs that would remain in place until the coronavirus crisis had subsided.
Citing the threat Covid-19 posed to her family, Ms Hourigan believed that the virus should have been the priority over lengthy and complex Government formation negotiations.
After the series of votes in which she stood against the Government yesterday, this paper saw Ms Hourigan speaking to Francis Noel Duffy in a corridor when People Before Profit TD Bríd Smith walked past, appearing give what seemed to be an enthusiastic well done.