Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne has today written to Minister James Browne to express concern over the proposed appointment of Brendan McDonagh as the government\u2019s new housing tsar.<\/p>\n
Deputy Hearne, who is the party\u2019s housing spokesperson, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my letter, I reminded the Minister that Mr McDonagh\u2019s main role in NAMA was overseeing the fire sale of assets. This resulted in the eviction of thousands of people into homelessness through its receivers arranging vacant possession for the sale of rental properties.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr McDonagh was also centrally involved in bringing institutional investors into Ireland, where billions\u2019 worth of homes and land were sold, at discount, to global vulture funds.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow is it appropriate that an individual who played a key role in adding to the housing crisis is now to be given responsibility for fixing it?<\/p>\n
\u201cIn addition, at a time when the government is postponing the introduction of a living wage, it is outrageous that it should create a gold-plated position with a salary package worth almost half a million euro.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are other issues the Minister must clarify in relation to this new role. He needs to provide details of the remit of the Housing Activation Office; the full job spec for the role of housing tsar; the process that led to Mr McDonagh\u2019s selection; whether there was competition for the position; and if it was advertised.<\/p>\n
\u201cFinally, the Minister must confirm if the new office is the same as the one proposed by the Housing Commission last year \u2013 and if not, why not?\u201d<\/p>\n
April 28, 2025<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Social Democrats TD Rory Hearne has today written to Minister James Browne to express concern over the proposed appointment of Brendan McDonagh as the government\u2019s new housing tsar. Deputy Hearne, who is the party\u2019s housing spokesperson, said: \u201cIn my letter, I reminded the Minister that Mr McDonagh\u2019s main role in NAMA was overseeing the fire […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":12127,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7,510],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-housing-crisis","category-press-release","category-rory-hearne"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n