‘Housing czar’ to be appointed imminently – Taoiseach

The Taoiseach has said that a “housing czar” will be appointed imminently to oversee housing policy.

Micheál Martin said the appointment was aimed at speeding up the delivery of housing and that the objective was to have one in place by the end of the month.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, he said: “We’ve already made the decisions on that.

“We’re setting up the strategic housing office within the Department of Housing and a person has been identified and obviously the minister will announce that very, very shortly.

“That will again be the objective, of being on big sites and in big areas to unblock any sort of barriers or blockages getting in the way of developments coming through.”

The Fianna Fáil leader said that housing was a “top priority” for the Government.

He said that a decision on rent pressure zones would be made “very shortly” after a review has been completed, and that the National Planning Framework will also be published shortly.

Mr Martin said that will allow the Government to instruct local authorities to rezone more land for more housing.

He added that planning is an issue that is being dealt with in the Planning Act.

“We did need to unblock the planning issue, that’s accepted and it will take a while to now implement it, such as the enormity of the plan,” he said.

The Taoiseach said that An Coimisiún Pleanála will be established in the next two to three months.

“And there will be statutory timelines. Without question, planning and delivery is the biggest issue facing us as a country across the public service and across agencies and so forth.

“And that’s why we are saying in terms of water and in terms of the grid, these are more fundamental enablers of housing that we’re very focused on in terms of the capital plan,” he said.

He said protecting the capital funding basis was “critical”, so it could be spent on infrastructure to enable sustained growth in housing over the future.

Mr Martin added that within the next two to three weeks the National Planning Framework will be going to Cabinet.