€430,000 'not a fair salary' for housing tsar, says Tánaiste
Tánaiste Simon Harris has said €430,000 is not a fair salary for the country's 'housing tsar' following reports that he blocked the appointment of Brendan McDonagh to the position this week.
Asked by host Patrick Kielty on tonight's Late Late Show whether these reports were accurate, Mr Harris replied: 'I don't like the word block.
'I just don't think it was a good idea, being honest, to go straight ahead with the appointment of any kind of individual person on a set salary without just taking a little bit of time to think,' he added.
Mr Harris said he was consulted about the proposed appointment at a leaders' meeting on Monday night, and it was decided to proceed with the establishment of a housing activation office, but the appointment was deferred.
Earlier, Taoiseach Micheál Martin denied that Mr Harris had blocked the appointment of Mr McDonagh, the CEO of the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA), by Housing Minister James Browne.
'No, that's not correct,' he said. 'I met with Simon Harris yesterday and spoke to Sean Canney and Brendan McDonagh himself; he doesn't want to be part of a controversy of this kind.
'We're going to move on now and the minister is going to report back to us,' he added.
When Mr Harris was asked whether he thought a salary of €430,000 was 'a fair amount for the job', he said he did not.
'But I think it is most important that we get the skillset right. I mean, I want to understand fully how we're going to staff this office, in a way,' he continued.
'And let's be honest, this isn't about any one person. I mean, if housing could be fixed by any one person, it would be long fixed.'
Fine Gael ministers were reportedly angry following the announcement of Mr McDonagh's expected appointment by Mr Browne on RTÉ News at One on Tuesday.
A spokesperson for Mr Harris said at the time that any such appointment 'should be discussed by the leaders before being made public'.
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