Senior civil servant appointed as ‘housing tsar’ with brief to speed up development – The Irish Times

Senior civil servant Garret Doocey has been appointed as the new “housing tsar” by the Government.

Doocey is currently the assistant secretary general of the Department of Transport with responsibility for land transport investment and public transport policy.

A graduate of Trinity College Dublin and of Oxford University, he has spent most of his career in the Civil Service, initially with the Courts Service before moving to transport in 2008.

His official title will be head of the Housing Activation Office (HAO) and deputy secretary general of the Department of Housing.

His appointment comes 10 months after Minister for Housing James Browne announced the setting up of the office, to increase the volume of new housing development at scale.

Last April, he indicated he wanted former Nama chief executive Brendan McDonagh to be the first housing tsar.

However, the appointment became controversial over the issue of whether McDonagh would retain his Nama salary of some €430,000. Amid ongoing media coverage, and concern expressed by Fine Gael Ministers that they had not been consulted about the process, McDonagh withdrew his name from consideration for the position.

As a deputy secretary general, Doocey’s salary will be a minimum of €219,258. The most senior holders of this position in Government have salaries of just over €280,000.

The primary focus of the role will be creating the necessary conditions to facilitate the supply of housing, both public and private, and the urgent activation of key sites throughout the country by addressing infrastructure bottlenecks.

In a statement, the Department of Housing said the HAO team had already held “robust” meetings with all local authorities countrywide. Browne has been critical about the performance of some councils in delivering social homes.

A new multiannual €1 billion Housing Infrastructure Investment Fund was launched in January to support direct investment in housing-enabling public infrastructure and to accelerate housing delivery. The Housing Activation Office will manage this Fund.