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.
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But it is understood objections from the Department of Public Expenditure over the role have not yet been addressed.
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 – reveal 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.
