Housing tsar appointed almost a year on from scandal over position
The Government has finally appointed a "housing tsar" almost a year after the position was embroiled in scandal.The Department of Housing announced on Tuesday that Garret Doocey has been appointed as deputy secretary general in the department with responsibility for housing activation.He will oversee the Housing Activation Office and report to the secretary general of the department.Mr Doocey, who was previously an assistant secretary in the Department of Transport, was appointed following a recruitment process by Public Jobs in conjunction with the civil service’s top-level appointments committee.He held several roles in the Department of Transport in the corporate, maritime, and public transport areas, including responsibility for major infrastructural programmes such as BusConnects, Dart+, MetroLink, and national roads. He also worked in the private sector and holds an MSc in major programme management, an MSc in economic policy studies, and an MA in public management.The Housing Activation Office was embroiled in controversy last April, when housing minister James Browne failed to get his “preferred” housing tsar, Brendan McDonagh, over the line.It followed opposition to the €430,000 salary that would have been paid to the National Asset Management Agency chief in the role as part of a secondment arrangement.Fine Gael blocked the appointment of Mr McDonagh in May, following anger he was being touted for the role before it was discussed at Cabinet and the Cabinet subcommittee on housing.Mr McDonagh later told Mr Browne he was withdrawing his name from consideration for any role with the Housing Activation Office “in light of the controversy that has arisen about the role”.In October, the Government formally advertised for the position, offering a salary of €217,000. In a press release, the Department of Housing said the Housing Activation Office had “undertaken significant and ongoing engagement with stakeholders to identify and address infrastructure barriers to housing delivery and develop a co-ordinated programme of investment with key infrastructure agencies and the local government sector”.“The [Housing Activation Office] team has held robust meetings with all local authorities countrywide,” it added.The announcement of a housing tsar comes weeks after the Government failed to hit the housing target it had set for 2025.A total of 36,284 new homes were completed in 2025, up 20.4% from 2024 and the highest annual figure since tracking began in 2011.The total still falls short of the revised 2025 target of 41,000 homes, agreed in November 2024.The Government announced last year, as part of its new housing plan, that it was scrapping annual targets but vowed to deliver 300,000 homes by the end of the decade.
