Mark Duffy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In recent days there have been reports about the appointment of a housing tsar to help support the housing crisis we face. I have serious concerns about this concept considering the fact that we have more than 900 tsars in county councils across every local authority. They are our county councillors. Devolved functions to zone housing on the ground is what we need to unlock housing supply, and working with potential developers, the utilities and service providers. That is where the war will be won in terms of unlocking housing supply. The sum of €430,000 is an extortionate amount of money for a position that has no clarity on what the holder is going to do. I welcome the programme for Government commitment on a housing activation office, but we must have stronger conversations on the concept of a housing tsar in terms of delivery and the empowerment of local authorities.

Numerous attempts were made in the area I am from in Mayo to zone land to activate housing in towns and villages in the county. I have been contacted daily by people who are trying to build one-off houses in the area they are from but they are being repelled by county development plans, local development plans or other bureaucratic excuses. It is not always the case that it is just about the lack of supply from Irish Water. We have had multiple examples in local area plans where councillors have tried to zone land that is in walking distance of urban centres, has footpaths, broadband, electricity supply and public lighting schemes but they are rejected because of population targets and ceilings that are being put on settlements in counties, towns and villages. We must devolve power back to local authorities because we have 900 tsars already in place who are resourced and paid. They just need to be empowered to do that work. That is where we need to have our focus. If we have a housing activation office, it must have devolved functions to every local authority and not be centralised.The LDA, for example, is doing great work but it is focused on the cities. I have concerns that if we have a housing activation office, it will again focus on centralised efforts in cities while towns in more rural areas are left behind. We need to empower the tsars we have and not create another layer of bureaucracy that will potentially impede progress in solving the housing crisis.