Latest news with #HousingActivationOffice
Irish Independent
25-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
‘Common sense' to delay Housing Plan until review of National Development Plan complete, housing minister says
Yesterday Taoiseach Micheál Martin confirmed that the housing plan would be delayed beyond July, when it was initially expected, with the possibility it will not be published until September. The housing plan will outline how the Government plans to meet its housing targets. While the review of the NDP, which sets out the Government's investment priorities in infrastructure, will look at all public capital investment projects up to 2035. Mr Browne said the Government were 'not waiting for the housing plan' to bring in measures to tackle the housing crisis and that new decisions were being made every week. 'I think it's just common sense in terms of we won't be able to finalise and publish the housing plan until the National Development Plan is completed. 'Minister Chambers is working very hard with all the various departments but that is obviously a challenging situation. All of us in our different departments have our asks,' Mr Browne said. Meanwhile secondments from different state bodies to the new Housing Activation Office (HAO) are being finalised, Mr Browne confirmed. However, he did not confirm when the head of this new office would be appointed. 'We're finalising now and confirming secondments into it from the various utilities. The secretary is in place, and we're standing it up now and only had a meeting on it yesterday,' Minister Browne said. Mr Browne said while the HAO would be 'on the ground' to help ensure properties are development and land is serviced, the office is only 'one part of a really important jigsaw'. After former NAMA chief Brendan McDonagh withdrew his name from consideration to head up this new office, it is unclear who will take up the position. The minister said while the head of this office was important, it was not essential to housing activation. 'It's a matter of identifying the head, but this is a team that's going to represent myself on the ground. 'I'll be making the strategic decisions, the policy decisions. Their role as a team on the ground is to unlock those sites. The head is important, but it's not an essential piece that housing activation, obviously, it's just one piece in that puzzle,' Mr Browne said.
Irish Independent
25-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Independent
'Common sense' to delay Housing Plan until review of National Development Plan complete, housing minister says
Yesterday Taoiseach Micheál Martin confirmed that the housing plan would be delayed beyond July, when it was initially expected, with the possibility it will not be published until September. The housing plan will outline how the Government plans to meet its housing targets. While the review of the NDP, which sets out the Government's investment priorities in infrastructure, will look at all public capital investment projects up to 2035. Mr Browne said the Government were 'not waiting for the housing plan' to bring in measures to tackle the housing crisis and that new decisions were being made every week. 'I think it's just common sense in terms of we won't be able to finalise and publish the housing plan until the National Development Plan is completed. 'Minister Chambers is working very hard with all the various departments but that is obviously a challenging situation. All of us in our different departments have our asks,' Mr Browne said. Meanwhile secondments from different state bodies to the new Housing Activation Office (HAO) are being finalised, Mr Browne confirmed. However, he did not confirm when the head of this new office would be appointed. 'We're finalising now and confirming secondments into it from the various utilities. The secretary is in place, and we're standing it up now and only had a meeting on it yesterday,' Minister Browne said. Mr Browne said while the HAO would be 'on the ground' to help ensure properties are development and land is serviced, the office is only 'one part of a really important jigsaw'. After former NAMA chief Brendan McDonagh withdrew his name from consideration to head up this new office, it is unclear who will take up the position. The minister said while the head of this office was important, it was not essential to housing activation. 'It's a matter of identifying the head, but this is a team that's going to represent myself on the ground. 'I'll be making the strategic decisions, the policy decisions. Their role as a team on the ground is to unlock those sites. The head is important, but it's not an essential piece that housing activation, obviously, it's just one piece in that puzzle,' Mr Browne said.
Irish Times
05-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Department objected to Government's ‘housing tsar' amid concerns over pay and recruitment
The Department of Public Expenditure sought to block the approval by Cabinet of the so-called ' housing tsar ' in April, new internal records show. The Government department responsible for State spending cited concerns about the lack of a business case for the role, the implications for wider public pay policy and concerns about the process for the selection of the preferred candidate, Brendan McDonagh , the chief executive of Nama. Mr McDonagh withdrew from consideration for the role after political concerns were raised about the possibility that he might retain his €430,000 salary at Nama in the new job, and public disagreements between Coalition partners Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael over the issue. The Government intends to proceed with establishing the role to head a new 'Housing Activation Office', which is being created in a bid to speed up the building of homes to ease the housing crisis. READ MORE But it is understood objections from the Department of Public Expenditure over the role have not yet been addressed. [ Nama's Brendan McDonagh says he could have added 'value' to new housing delivery agency Opens in new window ] The proposal is not yet ready to be signed off at a meeting of the Cabinet housing committee scheduled for today, though senior sources expect that possible names for the post will be discussed by the leaders of the Government parties soon, possibly next week. Newly released emails between senior officials in the Department of Public Expenditure ('DPer') and the Department of Housing – issued under the Freedom of Information Act – reveals concerns about the role. DPer officials told their counterparts in housing on Friday, April 25th that the memo relating to the role was 'not in position to go to Government' the following week. 'We have only got sight of the draft today and we need time to properly consider a number of elements, particularly around the organisation structure,' the spending department told them. DPer complained that its pay policy division had not received a request to sanction the post describe this as 'the usual process'. 'There seems to have been no engagement with them on this and the wider pay policy implications,' the officials said. There was, the department said, no business case made; the pay rate was not disclosed; there were 'unclear' references to 'contracted expertise' for staff; and no background material was supplied on the recruitment process 'that appears to have been undertaken for the selection of the appointee'. Earlier, Eoin Dorgan, an assistant secretary at the Department of Public Expenditure, had written to the Department of Housing warning that several issues would have to be considered before the memo could go to Government. They included the functions and objectives of the HAO, its Exchequer implications, pay and conditions for the chief executive and wider staff and the precedents established by them and how the new office would interact with 'wider infrastructure projects and the National Development Plan'. Sources with knowledge of the issues raised said DPer's objections have not fully been addressed yet, though it is expected that the office, with a new chief executive, will be established in the coming weeks. In response to questions, the Department of Public Expenditure said it was continuing to engage with the Department of Housing 'to finalise the establishment of the new office and its operations and also in relation to the arrangements for the CEO of the HAO as appropriate'. Last week, the most senior civil servant in the Department of Housing Graham Doyle told a property conference he did not think a 'housing tsar' was necessary. The department later said in a statement that his remarks reflected his opposition to the term 'tsar' rather than the role.
RTÉ News
30-05-2025
- Politics
- RTÉ News
41,000 new homes this year 'very difficult,' says Minister
Minister for Housing James Browne has admitted a pre-general election Government promise to build 41,000 new homes this year is now "very, very difficult" and will be "an extreme climb to reach". For the second time in a week, the Minister conceded the high-profile commitment is now unlikely to happen, a situation which is likely to be further criticised by opposition parties. Speaking to reporters at the long-awaited launch of the St Teresa's housing development in Dublin City, which was first discussed a quarter of a century ago, Minister Browne was asked about the promised 41,000 figure and whether it will be reached. He responded by saying: "The 41,000 figure is very, very difficult." "We're coming off a much lower base from last year than we certainly hoped, so to get from 30,000 up to 41,000 is an extreme climb to reach." Accepting recent Central Bank and ESRI predictions on the situation, he said that most of the organisations who look at these figures are "predicting around 33,000-34,000 at this point, and they seem to be very consistent around that". "It is quite early in the year a lot of homes come on stream towards the end of the year, but I very much believe activating as quickly as possible that supply." Minister Browne's latest admission that the 41,000 figure is unlikely to be met comes after he outlined a similar situation to RTÉ's Prime Time programme on Tuesday. The 41,000 figure has been a repeated target of opposition parties, which have alleged Government ministers publicly contradicted private advice from departmental officials in the lead-up to last year's general election that the 2025 housing prediction would not happen. Meanwhile, speaking at the same event, Minister Browne rejected reports his Department's secretary general Graham Doyle, had told a conference he does not believe a housing tsar is needed. It was reported this week that during a housing event organised by IBEC lobby group Property Industry Ireland, Mr Doyle said while an "interventionalist approach" is needed, "we never, ever used the word tsar". Mr Doyle added that, in a vote at the conference on whether Ireland needed a housing tsar, "I voted no". Responding to questions on the issue, Minister Browne said on four occasions that he believes Mr Doyle is fully "supportive" of the Housing Activation Office and was simply embroiled in "a semantics debate". "Well, I've spoken with the secretary general, he's fully supportive of the creation of the Housing Activation Office and it having a CEO role. "I think what he got into was almost a semantics debate around the description of the role and what it should be called, but he's fully supportive of it. "I've spoken with him since, and his support is very much there." When pressed on the issue, Minister Browne added that while civil servants have their views, "it's the Government which makes the decisions and the Government will be driving on in really key decisions, the Housing Activation Office is one of those". The comments are likely to be of interest to thousands of people who remain in emergency housing accommodation, with the latest monthly homelessness figures due to be published by the Department of Housing this afternoon. Asked about the figures, which were due to be published by his Department this afternoon, Minister Browne said, "I haven't seen them". However, he said, "if you look at homelessness in cities right across the world, even really progressive cities" there is homelessness, and he referenced challenges in Dublin City, including high rents a number of times.
Irish Examiner
30-05-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Minister confirms review of home loan scheme as Kildare house prices exceed borrowing limits
Housing minister James Browne has confirmed a review has taken place into a council-led loan scheme after affordable houses in Kildare were found to be above the borrowing threshold. The review comes after reports of affordable homes in Kildare being ineligible for the Local Authority Home Loan scheme, as the cost of the houses is above the threshold at which people can borrow. 'I have asked for a review to be carried out around the home loan scheme to make sure it matches across the country in terms of those limits,' Mr Browne said. 'Those proposals are with me now, they actually already arrived yesterday. I'll be making a decision on those very rapidly.' The eight affordable homes in question, at Lattin Place in Naas, first went on sale earlier this week. Three types of houses are available, with a two-bed mid-terrace starting at €295,000, a three-bed mid-terrace starting at €365,000, and a three-bed end-terrace starting at €370,000. However, in Kildare, the maximum property value to allow someone to access the Local Authority Home Loan is €360,000. Mr Browne said he wanted to see the limits increased 'where they need to be increased' to remove any disparity around the Local Authority Home Loan scheme. Housing minister James Browne has confirmed a review has taken place into a council-led loan scheme. Picture: Sam Boal/Collins Photos He admitted that the scheme was not aligned in Kildare, but he was not aware of any other specific situations where the threshold did not align with the cost of an affordable home. 'I want to try and get them aligned so that we don't have this type of disparity because I know it causes stress for families… I don't want that situation happening,' Mr Browne said, following reports in the Irish Times. 'The Government is spending record funding on delivering housing, on supporting people to get those homes. So that misalignment, I certaintly want to see an end and intend to bring an end to that.' Meanwhile, Mr Browne has said the secretary-general at the department of housing, Graham Doyle, is 'fully supportive' of the creation of the Housing Activation Office. It followed comments from Mr Doyle on Thursday, where he said there was no need for a 'housing tsar'. The term has become widely associated with whoever is due to lead the new Housing Activation Office. However, Mr Browne said Mr Doyle had only gotten into a 'semantics debate' about the description of the job and 'what it should be called'. 'He's fully supportive of it. I've spoken with him since and his support is very much there,' Mr Browne said. 'It is the Government that makes the decisions and the Government will be driving on with really key decisions. The Housing Activation Office is one of those.' Read More Taoiseach and President warn Ireland is target of Israeli propaganda over Gaza stance
