Housing motion just the beginning of campaign of pressure on Government and Independents
The Opposition was able to frame Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien's counter motion as a 'vote to increase homeless'. Picture: Damien Storan.
The eviction ban vote has exposed a new vulnerability within this Coalition.
The Government may have survived the Sinn Féin motion, with a clear margin of 15 to spare, but the vote has signalled the start of a new war of attrition that could hack away at that majority until the numbers are simply not there.
Housing is clearly a weak spot for this Government.
The Opposition was able to frame Housing Minister Darragh O'Brien's counter motion as a "vote to increase homeless" and sought to put the spotlight firmly on the Green Party who are naturally on edge around this issue.
Sinn Féin and others in the Opposition will be undoubtedly using this to put further pressure on Independents, and indeed many Government TDs who must have been squirming in the Coalition back benches as they effectively endorsed the lifting of the eviction ban.
Having won this week's vote, Leo Varadkar will face another, possibly more critical ballot next week when the Labour Party tables a motion of no-confidence in the Government.
Sinn Féin has also suggested that it is ready to spark a campaign of motions on housing in a bid to get under the skin of backbench TDs and Independents.
Then there will be the monthly homeless figures, which will provide the Opposition with regular ammunition, as the numbers in emergency accommodation increase each month that the ban is not in place.
Notices to quit published by the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) every quarter will act as another set of data to draw from.
Unlike previous votes, which the Government came at with reassured confidence, the Sinn Féin motion on the eviction ban has got backbench TDs tetchy and ministers scrambling to ensure those previously loyal Independent supporters remain onside.
Green Party minister Ossian Smyth admitted that the defection of party colleague Neasa Hourigan had also put the Government in a "serious" position.
Having taken advantage of this new vulnerability, the regional group of Independents were the real winners this week.
The group of eight TDs, who played a blinder in commanding significant airtime and substantial column inches, saw their demands accepted. Their list of requests, which had been published on Monday night, showed up almost verbatim in the Government's counter-motion on Tuesday morning.
While still not enough to secure the backing of Peter Fitzpatrick and Verona Murphy, the group's victory was highlighted by Labour's Ged Nash, who cheekily used a point of order to ask the Government how much it had cost to buy the Independent votes.
With further tricky votes now expected in the weeks and months ahead, the Independents know that they will have significant bargaining power.
Speaking ahead of the vote, Sean Canney said: "The book will close on this issue tonight, but next week we will be opening another one.
"I am voting this way now, but it is not an indication as to how we will be voting next week," he said, adding that he and his Independent colleagues would be studying the Labour motion before arriving at a decision.
He said those in the group who felt in a position to support the Government yesterday evening did so because their demands to change the Fair Deal Scheme for those renting houses and a widening of the Croí Connaithe grant had finally been accepted.
However, Mr Canney pointed out that these measures had been raised by TDs for months, and in some cases years, and this delay in action would have to be taken into account in judging the overall performance of the Coalition ahead of the no-confidence vote.
There are now 13 weeks until the Dáil takes leave for the summer recess. It provides the Opposition with the opportunity to launch a string of motions, call for numerous debates, and to relentlessly raise evictions, homelessness, and the ongoing housing crisis in its many guises.
