Housing Minister James Browne has today announced that he has established the Housing Activation Office within the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to ensure a radical step change in housing supply. The new Housing Activation Office will move quickly to address barriers to the delivery of vital public infrastructure projects needed to enable greater housing development.
The new office will sit alongside existing divisional structures in the Department.
The Housing Minister Wexford TD James Browne is being accused of seeking a job share arrangement by establishing the new Housing Activation Office.It’s set to be headed by current NAMA chief Brendan McDonagh, who looks set to retain his €430,000 salary – but no name was discussed at Cabinet.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, says the salary is outrageous, meanwhile when speaking on Morning Mix yesterday Mick Wallace expressed his frustration at the appointment.
Explaining the importance of the new office, Minister Browne emphasised:
“The housing crisis needs rapid responses from all angles and unblocking delivery via a targeted team of experts is one of the first things I identified to be done coming into office less than three months ago.
“We must accelerate housing delivery to meet the needs of families and communities, and to deliver on ambitious targets. The Housing Activation Office will do what it says on the tin – it will have the ability to seek out obstacles to growth, the agility to troubleshoot and ensure smoother delivery. In a nutshell it’s a dedicated, expert team focused on activating sites and getting shovels moving where they are stalled.
“This new team, led by an experienced CEO – will engage, align and in a very practical way pull together stakeholders, including our local authorities, utility and infrastructure providers, and industry to get infrastructure delays moving in a coordinated way and enable an unblocking of housing development.”
“The Housing Activation office is just one of a number key steps I am taking to speed up the delivery of housing – so many parts of the process have to work in tandem and more efficiently, and I am targeting each strand for improvement.
“Supply, supply, supply is a key challenge in housing. People from Kinsale to Sligo to Dublin City Centre are feeling the impacts of the housing crisis and I am determined to move the dial on delivery. No stat on housing is a number on its own to me, it represents someone seeking a roof over their head and a safe, secure community to be part of. Every decision I make right now matters and everything on the table is being strategically considered.
“I am establishing and will directly chair the Housing Activation Delivery Group which will support the Housing Activation Office in developing a coordinated programme of public infrastructure investment. This group will comprise senior people from key Government Departments, as well as infrastructure agencies, regulators, housing delivery agencies and other public sector expertise. As Minister I will also chair the Housing Activation Industry Group, to provide for regular structured engagement between the Office and industry representative bodies. These aren’t committees for the sake of it – I want streamlined, on the ground reporting as to progress in each location and how we can scale up the housing delivery needed.”
The Housing Activation Office will focus on infrastructure needed at a local level to support housing delivery on multiple sites, including the social and community infrastructure needed to support the development of sustainable communities. It will identify and deliver those actions needed to accelerate the delivery of necessary public infrastructure and will have an operational function to unblock issues on the ground.
The Office will work with those Departments and agencies who are engaged in infrastructure development and who will remain responsible for the timely and effective delivery of their infrastructure priorities. The Housing Activation Office will include experts seconded directly from key public infrastructure agencies with detailed knowledge of the relevant infrastructural areas, including Uisce Éireann, ESB Networks, the National Transport Authority and the Local Government Sector.
