In public office you are every bit as accountable for what you have not done as for what you have. One may be adept at dodging responsibilities, but avoiding the consequences is trickier.
The housing crisis touches a raw nerve, and anything that might be seen as an attempt to deflect blame for not solving it causes a backlash.
Small wonder then, that the row over the appointment of a new housing tsar drags on.
Simon Harris seemed miffed at Housing Minister James Browne’s touting of Nama boss Brendan McDonagh as his preferred candidate to lead the new Strategic Housing Activation Office.
Reaction to the new housing tsar is no reflection on Brendan McDonagh’s suitably. Photo: Tom Burke
The €430,000 salary – Mr McDonagh’s remuneration in his present role – also raised hackles, for it is €200,000 more than what the Taoiseach is paid. Mr Harris has let it be known that such posts “should be discussed between [coalition] leaders in advance of any name being made public”.
But the Coalition has been hoist by its own petard. It could not have been clearer that solving this crisis would be the yardstick by which its legacy would be assessed. With the vast combined experience of Micheál Martin and Simon Harris to draw on, many wonder why another executive position was needed.
There is also a perception that we have created a burgeoning “state within a state” by stealth – silos where responsibility can be off-loaded.
When there is success, plaudits can be shared; where there are failures, politicians can be insulated from the fall-out. This might be unfair, but the public may counter that they placed their trust in their elected leaders, not in arm’s-length agencies.
Another example of a government whose housing strategy was ‘flying by the seat of your pants’
The expectation is the executive will make the critical decisions and devise the strategies crucial to the national interest, and the delivery of houses is close to the top of the list in this regard. In any case, who is better qualified than either the Taoiseach or Tánaiste to make sure vital objectives are met?
The Coalition has created a rod to beat its own back. Labour leader Ivana Bacik has claimed the proposed new housing body was “shrouded in secrecy”, another example of a government whose housing strategy was “flying by the seat of your pants”.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said paying someone “almost half-a-million euro” to fix the housing crisis “is cracked”. At best it is a hard sell; at worst it undermines confidence on the issue.
There now appears to be a shying away from confirming the appointment. None of this is a reflection on the eminent suitability of Mr McDonagh. It is the judgment of the Government that is now in the full glare for throwing gunpowder on the fire.
“Never trouble another for what you can do yourself,” was a maxim of Thomas Jefferson. It is something the Taoiseach and Tánaiste might do well to consider.
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