Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

People want to know what is so impressive about Brendan McDonagh's CV that he is worth almost €500,000 a year to be the so-called housing czar.

4 o’clock

They will be outraged when they find out that his qualification is not experience in addressing the housing crisis but instead in causing it. He has been CEO of the National Asset Management Agency, NAMA, since 2009, when he was appointed by the late Brian Lenihan. It took on loans on land and property originally valued at €88 billion. That gave the State control of almost all development land suitable for housing. Over the next 16 years, Brendan McDonagh flogged it all off for less than half the price. Some 90% of it went to US vulture funds, which sold it back to the same developers who took out the bad loans in the first place for far less than they originally owed. It was an absolute scam, which cost the people €34 billion and has left vulture funds and property developers hoarding all of the housing and development land that we need to solve the housing crisis. How on earth can the Government appoint Brendan McDonagh to solve a crisis he created?

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