Independent TD Verona Murphy came close to tears in the Dáil on Thursday as she lambasted the Government over its decision to end the eviction ban.
The Wexford TD was one of the few members of the Regional Independent Group not to back the coalition in Wednesday evening’s vote on the eviction ban.
The Government won a countermotion on Wednesday night after Sinn Féin proposed extending the moratorium on the eviction ban until the end of January.
READ MORE: Independent TDs warn their support is not guaranteed for confidence motion after eviction ban.
Ms Murphy made the decision to vote against the Government just an hour before the Dáil vote following a meeting with Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien.
During Leader’s Questions with Tánaiste Micheál Martin on Thursday, Ms Murphy became visibly upset as she criticised the Government’s decision to end the ban.
She said: “I want to voice my displeasure at again having to sit here through a mockery of what has happened.
“Nobody won anything yesterday, least of all our reputations for solving problems.
“I have a headache from listening to rubbish. There is no solution among any of ye. All ye want to do is bicker and blame somebody else. All of these things are in your control.
“I received a document from your Minister for Housing yesterday. I hadn’t decided how I was going to vote because I have spoken about planning for three years. We have a very serious issue of 70,000 planning permission grants that haven’t commenced and will not commence until the Government deals with the viability issue. [Developers] are not building houses because they are being granted planning permission for houses that are not wanted and people will not buy.”
She said that a document she had received from Minister O’Brien was like something “he must have asked a young first-year college student to write”.
Ms Murphy continued: “It is time that we all stopped the BS .
“It is time for us to pull together because if one homeless child in Wexford is not accommodated, I will bring the child here and he or she will sit on the Ceann Comhairle's lap.
“I want an answer as to why the Minister would insult my intelligence and that of the developers who are trying to help people in this country.”
The Tánaiste said that he did not agree with Ms Murphy who he said was “declaring everything as rubbish”.
He said that the Government’s Housing for All plan is “the plan” and that he had “seen no other plan in terms of comprehensiveness or actual schemes”.
Mr Martin also said that he did not believe that viability should be an aspect of planning permission.
She argued that 70,000 planning permissions have been granted but are not activated.
The row on the eviction ban will now continue for another week as Sinn Féin will force another vote on the issue next Wednesday evening.
The Government will also face a no confidence motion tabled by the Labour Party on Wednesday. However, the Irish Mirror understands that the Government will table a confidence motion in itself that will be debated first thing on Wednesday morning.
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