This week host Emmett Scanlon talks to Neasa Hourigan. Neasa is the Green Party TD for Dublin Central.  Neasa is Green Party Finance & Health Spokesperson and Chair of Policy Council for the party.. Neasa also studied architecture at TUD Dublin, did a Masters by research in University College Dublin , worked in practice in Dublin, and then went to Queens University in Belfast where she developed a specific interest in community engagement, working with students of architecture.

Neasa is member of a party which is, at the time of recording, in Government in Ireland and since being elected for the first time as a member of the Dail in early 2020, Neasa Hourigan has had several moments when she has stood squarely against the politically whipped policies of her party. In a pretty wide ranging conversation Nessa talks about her move from architecture into politics and how that happened at a personal and professional level. We talk about education in architecture and learning how to put it all on the table for debate; Nessa talks about forming policy and programs for Government; We talk bollards and doorsteps as a means to change hearts and minds, what campaigning for Repeal does to a person; And of course the conversation turns to housing, the value of a referendum on the right to house and if the Department of Housing is fit for purpose.

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Neasa Hourigan is the Green Party TD for Dublin Central (formally councillor for Cabra-Glasnevin). Neasa is Green Party Finance & Health Spokesperson and Chair of Policy Council. She has a professional background as a specialist in creating sustainable communities and was a university lecturer in environmental development and design. She and her family have lived in Cabra, Dublin 7 for 15 years.

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Music is by Sinead Finegan, played by the Delmaine String Quartet (Philip Dodd, leader).

The podcast was recorded on Zoom.