Cormac O’Rourke appointed chair of Land Development Agency

Former transport agency boss Cormac O'Rourke is to become the new chairman of State housing development body the Land Development Agency (LDA) following a nine-month recruitment process.

The LDA chairmanship has been vacant since the departure last May of former secretary general of the Department of Finance John Moran, who served as interim LDA chairman since January 2019.

Mr O'Rourke was previously chairman of Transport Infrastructure Ireland (TII). He was appointed chairman of the National Roads Authority and the Railway Procurement Agency in January 2013 and then become the first chairman of TII on its creation in August 2015, until he stepped down in November 2021.

He is also a director of Goodbody Corporate Finance and was previously European head of project finance of KBC Bank and investment director of ESB International. He is an engineer by training, and a graduate of University College Dublin with a master's degree in industrial engineering/business.

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Strategic priorities

As chair-designate of the LDA Mr O'Rourke will next Thursday meet the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government. He has been invited by the committee to address the LDA's strategic priorities and will be joined by the agency's chief executive, John Coleman.

Minister for Housing Darragh O’Brien last April said he had been informed by Mr Moran that he did not intend to seek the chairmanship of the LDA following the expiry of his term as interim chairman in May.

Mr Moran had raised concerns about the agency’s funding, saying at the time of his departure: “Against the scale of the housing crisis the €2.5 billion currently allocated to the LDA is insufficient to solve the problem.”

Funding was subsequently increased to €3.5 billion.