Housing motion just the beginning of campaign of pressure on Government and Independents

Many Government TDs must have been squirming in the Coalition back benches as they effectively endorsed the lifting of the eviction ban.

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.