The Government has advertised for a new housing tsar on a salary of more than €200,000 to take responsibility for managing the crisis and increasing supply.
The Department of Housing is looking for applications through the central Civil Service recruitment system for the head of a new Housing Activation Office (HAO).
According to the advertisement, the successful candidate will be tasked with driving “the Government’s efforts to increase housing supply”.
A HAO was a key part of the new Government’s plan to tackle the deepening problem when it was returned to power earlier this year.
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But the role was plunged into controversy when the expected appointee, Brendan McDonagh, the chief executive of the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), withdrew from consideration. That came after it emerged Fine Gael had not been consulted on the plan to hire Mr McDonagh, who was expected to keep his existing €430,000 salary.
The official job title for the new role is deputy secretary general for Housing Activation, which puts the position at a public service pay scale of €217,087, according to a revised pay scale effective since August 1st.
According to the job description, the new deputy secretary general will lead the HAO’s focus “on unlocking key sites with potential for large-scale housing development nationwide”.
He or she will also be responsible for ensuring infrastructure policies, including water and planning, help create new housing projects, and will advise both Minister for Housing James Browne and other senior members of Government.
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The head of the HAO will have the authority to manage the national housing budget, including the Housing Activation Fund and Urban Regional and Development Fund. He or she will have to work with the Department of Public Expenditure’s infrastructure division, as well as local authorities and infrastructure agencies.
They will run a special working group on water, which will include the chief executive of Uisce Éireann “to consider key water investments that affect housing capacity”. They will also run a subcommittee on housing, planning and water, described as “the central forum for cross-department co-ordination, bringing together relevant assistant secretaries and other senior officials” to review the Government’s progress on housing and water infrastructure.
The official will report to the secretary general at the Department of Housing. The job is advertised as having a “primary focus” on the Government’s role “in creating the necessary conditions to facilitate the supply of housing, both public and private, and the activation of key sites throughout the country by addressing infrastructure bottlenecks”.
