Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy has survived a motion of no confidence in the Dáil

There was a strong debate that went into the late hours of Tuesday night.

A motion of no-confidence in Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy was debated on Tuesday evening following Sinn Féin's confirmation some three weeks ago that they had planned to table such a vote during this Dáil term. The party – who have criticised Murphy's handling of the worsening homelessness crisis in recent weeks – met for their annual 48-hour conference earlier in the month to discuss a number of major items on the political agenda. It was at this, their first national think-in under leader Mary Lou McDonald, that the party decided to table a motion of no confidence in the Housing Minister, who has faced accusations of being an out-of-touch "posh boy" in recent weeks. Late on Tuesday night, RTE confirmed that Murphy had survived the motion: "59 deputies supported Minister Eoghan Murphy and 49 said they had no confidence in him, with 29 abstaining. Following a request from Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh, the motion was put to a manual vote, which the Government won again." Over the course of the evening, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald pulled no punches with her opinion on the Housing Minister: I heard Minister Murphy explaining away his deplorable record by saying that the numbers of people in homelessness are going up because – to quote him – people keep on presenting to emergency accommodation. "I want to know is the minister now blaming the homeless for being homeless. The buck stops with him."