Nama chief Brendan McDonagh withdrew his name from consideration for the ‘fixer-in-chief’ position
Mr McDonagh contacted Housing Minister James Browne ahead of a meeting of the cabinet sub-committee on housing yesterday afternoon.
Government sources said he cited the controversy around his proposed appointment and informed the minister he was withdrawing his name from consideration for any role with the Strategic Housing Activation Office.
The development leaves the timeframe for setting up the office in doubt.
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – Friday May 2
Mr Browne has committed to coming back to Taoiseach Micheál Martin and Tánaiste Simon Harris about the “next steps” in appointing somebody whom he previously said would be a “maverick” and “kick down doors”.
It is now expected the appointment will go through the public procurement process.
One minister said the momentum that had been there to “move quickly to set up the new office” is now gone.
“It’s going to be some time before we have a named person in that role, and the likelihood of having them before summer is much further away than it was two days ago,” they said.
The announcement came just days after Mr Browne said Mr McDonagh was his preferred candidate for the role.
However, reports that Mr McDonagh would be seconded from Nama and keep his salary of €430,000 became a sticking point.
Minister Browne has acted with utter incompetence from the get go
Both the Taoiseach and Tánaiste had publicly insisted in recent days that no decision had been made on who would be appointed to the position.
The decision came after pushback from Fine Gael ministers who had concerns around the salary and the transparency around the appointment.
In a short statement, issued jointly by Mr Martin and Mr Harris yesterday, they confirmed that the Strategic Housing Activation Office had been established.
Its purpose was to “break down silos and drive delivery of housing”, they said.
The statement said Mr Browne would “progress the setting up of the Housing Activation Office and report back to the next Cabinet Committee on Housing following consultation with party leaders on all aspects”.
Sinn Féin’s housing spokesperson Eoin Ó Broin said the whole process had been a “shambles”.
“This week re-enforces the incompetence of Micheál Martin, Simon Harris and James Browne on this issue,” he said.
“How can anyone solve the housing crisis when they cannot even agree among themselves around the process of setting up a housing activation office and appointing a lead person?
“The entire enterprise was ill-conceived from the start.
“There should never have been a proposal to pay anyone half-a-million euro to help tackle the housing crisis.”
Labour’s spokesperson on housing, Conor Sheehan, described the handing of the issue “shambolic”.
“Minister Browne has acted with utter incompetence from the get go,” he said.
“The big question now is if Fine Gale have blocked the appointment of Mr McDonagh because they felt he wasn’t the right man for the job, or because Harris is disappointed he didn’t get the hop on his colleagues in Fianna Fáil.
“Either way, it is no way to run a country.”
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