How a new housing office snowballed into controversy

This has been an embarrassing episode for the Government.

The seemingly straightforward task of establishing and staffing a new office to speed up the building of homes has instead snowballed into a mighty political controversy.

At the root of it was Minister for Housing James Browne’s public championing of NAMA boss Brendan McDonagh to head up the Housing Activation Office.

He was the minister’s preferred candidate, but much political heat built around this anticipated appointment and Fine Gael accused the minister of putting the cart before the horse.

It was not Mr McDonagh’s credentials that spooked many in Government, particularly those in Fine Gael, but rather his salary of more than €430,000.

That was the pressure point which suddenly left TDs fearing they would struggle to defend such a sum in the teeth of an unrelenting housing crisis.

A crisis where homelessness numbers, house prices and rents are all continuing to rise.

Added to that, the Government parties’ predictions during the election around the number of new homes set to be completed last year did not come to fruition.

Something had to be done to halt what all sides in Government were by this afternoon describing as a “a very difficult situation”.

There was a feeling that even in the best case scenario, improving the housing statistics would take time.

So appointing someone on a salary of €430,000 while waiting for those figures to move in the right direction would have opened up the Government to further sustained criticism.

All the while the Tánaiste was becoming more and more concerned that he was not centrally involved in the decision-making process and felt out of the loop.

The brake was applied.

The euphonious language stated that more work was needed on the proposal.

And that essentially brought the curtain down on Brendan McDonagh’s appointment.

Mr McDonagh exited the stage soon after and informed the Minister for Housing that he no longer wanted to be part this controversy.

That decision puts out the political fire – for the moment at least.

But the Government does not emerge unscathed and it raises further questions about the coalition’s ability to resolve the plethora of housing problems facing the country.

It also serves as another reminder that this new Government has got off to a very shaky start.