Tadgh McNally reports from Hong Kong:

GREEN PARTY LEADER Eamon Ryan was reluctant to wade into the ongoing row between the party’s director of communications and a backbench TD.

Earlier this week, Thomas Molloy sent a tweet which labelled Neasa Hourigan as not being a sensible person.

The tweet, which has since been deleted, was in response to the lineup of RTÉ’s Upfront with Katie Hannon, which featured Hourigan alongside Sinn Féin’s Eoin Ó Broin and Fianna Fáil’s Paul McAuliffe.

A spokesperson for the Green Party said yesterday that Molloy’s tweet was meant to be sent to a friend and was not intended to be seen publicly.

“Tom accidentally tweeted a message which he had meant to text a friend,” the spokesperson said.

“He apologises to Neasa as he never intended for the message to be read publicly.”

Speaking to The Journal in Hong Kong, Ryan said that he was “reluctant to comment about any developments at home because I’m not up to speed on them”, citing the high number of meetings held in Hong Kong and Shanghai in recent days.

However, he said that care needed to be taken around stories related to social media and that Twitter lends itself to quick comment.

Hourigan has recently been critical of the Government due to the decision to end the no-fault eviction ban at the end of the month.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Upfront with Katie Hannon, she said she was “shocked” to see the ban lifted and accused the coalition leaders, including her own party leader Eamon Ryan, of lifting the ban “with no real preparation”.

Next week, Sinn Féin are due to introduce a motion to reinstate the eviction ban and for it to be extended until January 2024.

When asked about the motion, Ryan said that he was unsure what Sinn Féin’s position was, due to the party admitting that the eviction ban was could not be extended indefinitely.

Speaking to reporters in Washington DC, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he is confident the government will win the vote. 

“I can’t speak for every individual backbencher but I’m certainly confident we will win the vote. I would point out that it’s a non-binding motion. It’s not legislation,” he said. 

In New York this week, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald told reporters that the ban was not “in and of itself the answer to our housing crisis”.

“We know that it can’t be a permanent feature, but we also know that it is just irresponsible of a Government to move ahead, to take away this protection from renters and from so many people who are in a very, very vulnerable position. So I think common decency has to prevail here,” she said. 

In response, Ryan said that he did not believe Sinn Féin had “any real solutions”.

“I think for the opposition, it’s an easier position to be in. Whatever the Government says you’re against it,” Ryan said.

“I’m not too sure if Sinn Féin have any real solutions.”

He cited the Government’s proposed ‘first refusal’ policy for tenants whose landlord is selling up, alongside the expanded tenant-in-situ scheme. The updated scheme will allow both local authorities and Approved Housing Bodies to buy the property and rent it back to the tenant on a cost-rental basis.

“That is transformative of the Irish housing market, in my mind,” Ryan added.

“My instinct and my interest is really delivering practical measures that address the core of the problem.”

With reporting by Christina Finn in Washington DC