Mary Lou McDonald has said the proposed €430,000 salary for the head of the Government’s new housing delivery unit “truly beggars belief,” reports Breaking News.
The Sinn Féin leader described the reported pay for the new head of the Housing Activation Office as a “slap in the face” to people across Ireland who are struggling due to the housing crisis.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin responded by saying that, although the Government had agreed on Tuesday to set up the new office, no official decision had been made about who would lead it, reports Breaking News.
McDonald brought up the issue during Leaders’ Questions, referring to reports over the weekend that the Government was considering appointing Brendan McDonagh, the chief executive of the National Asset Management Agency, to run the new unit.
The reports suggested McDonagh could be seconded into the role while retaining his existing Nama salary of about €430,000, reports Breaking News.
McDonald questioned the need for what she referred to as a “housing tsar,” claiming the responsibilities outlined for the position should already be part of Housing Minister James Browne’s role.
She said €430,000 was an “outrageous salary”.
“It’s more than the Taoiseach’s very generous salary, it’s even more than the president of the United States is paid,” she told the Dáil. It’s the starting salary of 11 new nurses, or 11 new gardaí or 13 new special needs assistants. And what’s to be the role of this new highly-paid tsar? Well, from what we’ve heard, he will focus on removing roadblocks to housing construction, to getting houses built more quickly, to speeding up housing delivery. Clearly, your Government have no confidence in Minister James Browne to do his job. €430,000 is a slap in the face for working people who are hit with rip-off bill after rip-off bill and who struggle to make it to the end of the week. It’s a kick in the teeth for those saving every spare cent desperately trying to put together the deposit for a house. It’s a kick in the teeth for every young person who has been forced to leave this country because they cannot afford a home,” reports Breaking News.
“So how do you justify this extravagant, gold-plated salary to those who are forced to fork out €2,000 on rent every month, to families who wait and wait and wait on council waiting lists for a home?” reports Breaking News.
“How do you justify it to mothers and fathers forced into homelessness, raising their children in hotel rooms or hubs – the appointment of the housing tsar changes nothing for them. That’s the truth. This new cushy job is part and parcel of the same broken Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael policies that landed us in this mess in the first place. So, as house prices, rents, homelessness all continue to rise, and as your Government misses its inadequate housing targets year after year, your next move, your next big idea, is to appoint another bureaucrat on an eye-watering salary. It truly beggars belief,” reports Breaking News.
Ms McDonald added: “People already know that your Government is a serial waster of public money, but I have to say this one really takes the biscuit. You’ve actually gone to the trouble of making up a job with a salary of 430 grand simply to give the appearance of government action when you’re doing nothing at all except going round and round in circles,” reports Breaking News.
Taoiseach Martin rejected the Sinn Féin leader’s criticism of the Government’s approach to housing.
“I couldn’t disagree more with the deputy in terms of her critique of government housing policy. The bottom line is that if you look over the last four years, there’s been a very significant step change in the level and scale of housing delivery in this country,” reports Breaking News.
He also argued that Sinn Féin had “failed in any shape or form” to provide credible alternatives to the Government’s housing plan.
Regarding the new office, Martin said: “On the Housing Activation Office, a decision was taken today by government to establish that office. No decision has been taken in terms of who will head up that office, but, to say this much, the person will be seconded from within the public service is an intention, which basically means there will be no additional cost in salary or whatever, to housing, or to anybody for that matter, in terms of a secondment within the public service. That’s the objective. But no decision has been made,” reports Breaking News.
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