Nama chief gets housing tsar or faces salary cut
The outgoing boss of Nama, Brendan McDonagh, is due to take a pay cut if he is not appointed as the Government's new housing tsar, Extra.ie can reveal.
Minister for Housing James Brown described Mr McDonagh as his 'preferred candidate' to take up the role as head of the Housing Activation Office on Tuesday.
Two Sunday newspapers reported at the weekend that Mr McDonagh is set to retain his €433,000 salary when he takes up the post.
However, Extra.ie has established that this salary is time-limited to Mr McDonagh's tenure at Nama, which is being dissolved at the end of this year. Brendan McDonagh. Pic: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie
A spokeswoman for the Department of Finance said Mr McDonagh is currently seconded from the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) and is due to return to that role when Nama is wound down.
'Nama will be dissolved by the end of 2025, subject to the enactment of required legislation currently being drafted,' she said.
'The current CEO of Nama is an employee of the NTMA, assigned to Nama, and until the dissolution of Nama, the agency remains focused on completing its phased and orderly wind-down and fulfilling its mandate.' Brendan McDonagh. Pic: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie
In 2009, Mr McDonagh earned a salary of €220,000 for his role as Director of Finance at the NTMA, but received an even bigger salary package to head up the newly established Nama in a time of national crisis.
While the exact figure of Mr McDonagh's salary if he returns to the NTMA is not known, it will have increased incrementally throughout his absence but will still be significantly lower than his current pay of €433,000 plus benefits.
The pay packet dwarfs that of the Taoiseach (€248,000) and Graham Doyle (€255,000), the secretary general of the Department of Housing, who Mr McDonagh would be working under. On Monday, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that he 'understands concerns' about the package for Mr McDonagh. Pic: Gareth Chaney/Collins Photos
Despite Minister Browne declaring him as his 'preferred candidate' on the RTÉ News at One on Tuesday, both a spokesman for the Taoiseach and Tánaiste, Simon Harris, could not say he was their preferred candidate just hours later.
The Cabinet committee on housing will meet today, and Mr Browne will seek approval from the Coalition leaders and other senior ministers to ratify Mr McDonagh's selection.
Sinn Féin housing spokesman Eoin Ó Broin criticised the creation of the role, saying it will have 'no actual power'. Pic: Sam Boal/Collins Photos
Speaking on RTÉ's Today With Claire Byrne, Mr Ó Broin said that 'it will only work if it has powers' and that 'there are already too many groups of civil servants getting in the way [of housing delivery]'.
Mr Ó Broin said that the public will be 'scratching their heads' wondering why someone would be appointed at almost twice the salary of the Taoiseach 'to a role that is underneath them with no statutory underpinnings, no power and no clarity [on] what it is meant to do'.
Mr Browne has so far not outlined what powers, if any, the new tsar would have. The new office will have a budget of close to €1billionn for the next five years in a bid to unlock stalled housing projects.
The Cabinet yesterday approved the creation of the new office, which will be comprised of eight to 11 experts tasked with having a 'laser focus' on removing barriers to housing on specific sites.
The unit is proposed to support public infrastructure planning for the delivery of sustainable communities on brownfield and greenfield sites.
It will be supported by a housing activation delivery group, which will be chaired by Mr Brown
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