Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

Is náireach plean an Rialtais beagnach €500,000 a íoc leis an sár tithíochta nua chun post a roinnt leis an Aire tithíochta. Tá an pobal iontach feargach mar gheall ar seo, agus ní cóir go rachaidh sé ar aghaidh. Ní féidir le duine ar bith an seasamh seo a chosaint agus ní cóir go n-éireodh leis.

A sum of €430,000 is the off-the-wall salary that the Tánaiste's Government is planning to pay the new housing tzar to come in and basically jobshare with the housing Minister, Deputy James Browne. A few words have been written and used to describe this decision. They include "absurd", "extravagant" and "scandalous". I will add another: "embarrassing". The Government should be embarrassed that it was prepared to pay someone nearly half a million euro to take up what are the main responsibilities of the Minister for housing. The Minister himself said that this housing tsar will come up with "rapid responses from all angles and unblocking delivery via a targeted team of experts." Does he not realise that that is his job that he is describing? That is his actual job. It is farcical.

The Taoiseach lectured the Opposition that this whopping €430,000 will not cost the public any additional money. He said this is because the Government's preferred candidate, Brendan McDonagh, is already receiving the salary as the head of NAMA. The Taoiseach's claim that the public will not cough up for this gold-plated salary appears not to be true, because this morning it has come to light that following the winding-down of NAMA, which is happening this year, McDonagh is due to return to his role in the NTMA at a significantly reduced salary so the taxpayer will foot the bill for this madcap salary. Is that not the truth?

There has been much speculation as well that Fine Gael is not happy. The media has been briefed about rows at Cabinet. Fine Gael backbenchers are apparently up in arms. Apparently the Tánaiste himself was blindsided by this bonkers decision and the process that was involved. He should come off the stage. There is no blindsiding going on here. This appointment and the name of Brendan McDonagh has been flagged in the national media with him as the lead candidate for nearly two months. Either the Tánaiste was very much on board or he was asleep at the wheel. Which one was it? Was he just oblivious to everything that has been written and said for the past six weeks or is this just an attempt by Fine Gael to dress this up as a Fianna Fáil solo run and a PR job because he recognises there is a public backlash about this? Ordinary people are shaking their heads and are sick to their stomachs in disbelief. This is happening at a time when so many are finding it difficult to make ends meet, hit by rip-off bill after rip-off bill and at a time when our working people and young people are struggling to find a home and to keep a roof over their heads. It is a real slap in the face for them.

It is not lost on anybody that this is happening on International Workers' Day, when the Government is breaking its election promises about increasing the minimum wage to the living wage and rowing back on its pledge to increase the number of paid sick days for workers. I know the Cabinet committee on housing is meeting today about this embarrassing idea to have a jobshare for the housing Minister. Will the Tánaiste come to his senses? Will he call stop on this absurd idea to pay someone hundreds of thousands of euro to do the job of the housing Minister, which he is already well-paid for? If this idea goes ahead and if the Tánaiste thinks he has seen a backlash now, he should get ready because he has not seen anything yet.

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