McDonald lays into coalition over housing tsar turmoil in early morning interview

IT WAS A sunrise start for Sinn Féin, who rolled out further criticism of the new ‘housing tsar’ position early this morning.

Speaking shortly after 7am, leader Mary Lou McDonald claimed that the Taoiseach and Tánaiste were “unable to rationalise” the role.

NAMA chief Brendan McDonagh withdrew his name from consideration for the new role yesterday, citing the controversy surrounding the position as head of the new Housing Activation Office – particularly the reported €430,000 salary.

Speaking on RTÉ’s News at One on Tuesday, housing minister James Browne said McDonagh had been his “preferred candidate” for the role.

Discussions took place at yesterday’s Cabinet subcommittee on housing on the matter, with sources stating that Fine Gael “blocked” the appointment of McDonagh at the meeting.

It is now understood that the position as head of the Housing Activation Office will be advertised and be put out to a public recruitment process. 

Mary Lou McDonald has since slammed the existence of the new role, arguing that the job’s responsibilities should fall under the remit of the housing minister.

In a somewhat unusual move for the opposition leader, McDonald spoke to RTÉ’s Morning Ireland on the issue from her car at around 7.10am.

McDonald said: “what really struck home was they (Martin and Harris) were completely unable to describe or explain or rationalise the role of this position, except to set out tasks that rightfully fall to the minister for housing.”

She added that there already is “somebody charged with the responsibility to increase supply”, and that “they have abjectly failed”.

“It’s deeply, deeply worrying that we’re in this cycle again of failure and botch,” McDonald said.

“It really took the biscuit that their big idea, having come back into government, was to hire somebody on almost half a million euros to essentially job share with the minister.”

Browne announced the creation of the new Housing Activation Office on Tuesday, explaining that the office will be responsible for “addressing barriers” to the delivery of housing. The housing minister and the government have faced widespread criticism from opposition since the announcement. 

McDonald said that she does not approve of “hiring more and more layers of bureaucracy and highly played bureaucrats to camouflage the fact that the people at cabinet are failing to do their job.”

Asked about Sinn Féin’s proposal in 2024 to create a ‘Housing Delivery Oversight Executive’, which the party claimed would have a “state-wide remit to align government housing strategy with infrastructure delivery”, McDonald said that the housing minister would have headed the group.

Sinn Féin’s 2024 manifesto did not explicitly state that the housing minister would lead the executive, but McDonald said that she “thought it would go without saying that the minister for housing, themselves on a significant salary and sitting at cabinet, leads on housing”.

During Leaders’ Questions yesterday, Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty slammed the proposed housing tsar salary as “off the wall” and accused the government of outsourcing ministerial duties.

He said Harris was either “on board or asleep at the wheel” as Brendan McDonagh’s name had been flagged for weeks.

Harris denied any decisions had been made on pay or appointments, saying the focus is on getting the job done.

Labour’s Ivana Bacik mocked the role as a “fixer with a nixer” and criticised the government for distancing itself from the controversy.