Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

Who is the Tánaiste trying to fool? He just stood up and barefaced said there is no housing tsar in his plan. Is that what he is trying to say? Does he know what his housing Minister said on "RTÉ News at One" yesterday? He said that Brendan McDonagh is "our preferred candidate". The Tánaiste said there are no candidates. The idea that there have not been conversations with Brendan McDonagh is nonsense, as is the idea that the Tánaiste did not know. Did the Tánaiste not read the Business Post six weeks ago when Brendan McDonagh's name was mentioned? What about Jack Horgan-Jones' piece about a month ago? The idea that the Tánaiste is blindsided by this is nonsense. The Government is proposing a housing tsar with a salary of €430,000. That is what is on the cards here. Deputy James Lawless, a Minister at the Cabinet, was talking in Kildare this morning and said that it is a big salary. This is understood, yet the Tánaiste is trying to backtrack after a public backlash about this.

A housing tsar is a daft idea because the housing Minister should be doing that job in the first instance. What salary is the Tánaiste willing to accept to pay this housing tsar? What salary does he believe is appropriate? Is it €300,000, €350,000, €400,000, or €430,000? Will he please give clarity to the people about his thinking on this? Or will he just wait to see what way the wind blows, go with it and then pretend he was never on board in the first instance?

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