Irish Examiner view: Embattled James Browne faces tough task in righting housing mess

It is true that the housing minister has played a bad hand poorly to date, but he inherited a difficult in-tray

Brendan McDonagh has withdrawn from the new housing tsar role.

Our political leaders might reflect on whether they should prepare an updated version of Lady Bracknell’s acidic observation to Mr Worthing in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.

“To lose one preferred candidate for a generously remunerated state sinecure may be regarded as a misfortune; to lose two looks like carelessness.”

The fiasco over the mooted €430,000 on-and-then-off appointment of Brendan McDonagh as the Government’s ‘Mr Fixit’ for the housing crisis echoes previous attempts to crash on through procedures which should be transparent and consultative.

While there is a lot of macho talk about breaking roadblocks, avoiding red tape, and cutting to the chase, that dynamism is supposed to apply to delivering solutions, not staff selection.

Safeguards are there for a reason, not least to protect candidates from the accusation that they are place-men, a clamour which increases in volume in direct proportion to the level of remuneration which applies to the post.

Our coalition Government, albeit in an earlier incarnation, has well-documented previous form. 

Still fresh in the memory is the hames that was made over the appointment/secondment of chief medical officer Tony Holohan to an academic post at Trinity College. 

When the terms of that deal finally emerged kicking and screaming into the daylight, the public saw that it was characterised by fudge, nudge, and misdirection.

Dr Holohan withdrew, and now Mr McDonagh appears to have concluded that taking up a similarly important position overseeing another key sector is not worth the political aggro.

This is personally embarrassing for Fianna Fáil’s Wexford TD, James Browne, who has been in post as housing minister since the end of January — also, by association, for the man who put him there, Taoiseach Micheál Martin.

Whether or not the identity of the “housing tsar” emerged before either Mr Martin or Simon Harris had been fully briefed is an interesting sub-plot in a familiar imbroglio.

Mr Browne’s reputation has been “seriously wounded” , say his critics, and some of his friends have reached the same conclusion.

James Browne's reputation has been 'seriously wounded'. Picture: Gareth Chaney/ Collins Photos

It is true that he has played a bad hand poorly to date, but he inherited a difficult in-tray with anxieties about prices, rent controls, the underfunded tenant-in-situ scheme, the short-term letting register, planning policies, commencements, and homelessness.

His next decisions will fundamentally affect his future, and it is not helpful that there is massively conflicting data about the likely efficacy of some potentially controversial decisions.

Last week, the Economic and Social Research Institute warned that a requirement on short-term lets such as Airbnbs to gain planning permission had been “largely ineffective” to date in clamping down on such rentals.

Even more worrying for supporters of such policies, which divide public opinion — particularly in rural areas — is the conclusion that it is unlikely that they are directly responsible for the severe lack of supply impacting Ireland’s tenant population.

Developing the levers to coercively control the rental market is just one of the tricky responsibilities falling within Mr Browne’s bailiwick. There are many components to housing policy, the mismanagement of any one of which could create an omnishambles with all the electoral fallout that implies.

The new minister has had a difficult start. The challenge for him now is to recover, and quickly.

Upgrade set to help Cork Airport take off

All those of a certain age who have visited Cork Airport in the past 20 years may still feel a twinge of nostalgia for the old premises, which will no doubt be heightened when the dated terminal and control tower is eventually replaced.

When the original airport opened in 1961, it became the gateway to a new world for many of us, providing opportunities for easier travel and experience which have blossomed ever since.

The significant improvements in service and comfort which arrived with the opening of the new terminal 20 years ago have stood us in good stead, and we welcome the news of the ambitious €200m investment programme, which was announced on Friday.

Developments, starting this August, will include a mezzanine floor over the arrivals area — which should be ready by late 2026 — and a new security screening area with technology that will eliminate the need to remove liquids, gels, pastes, and large electronic items from cabin baggage.

There will also be a fast lane; a new oversized baggage security facility; and, of course, additional space for duty-free goods.

The upgrade should help the airport grow from a forecast of 3.4m passengers this year to more than 5m. 

Expanded car parking space will be covered by a solar farm.

Cork Airport's upgrade should help the airport grow from a forecast of 3.4m passengers this year to more than 5m.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin described it as a momentous day for the airport, which has grown its passenger base by over 50% in the last decade, and contributes over €1bn to the economy.

Now ways need to be found to link it speedily, efficiently, and in an environmentally sensitive fashion to the city centre and the whole of the south of Ireland.

Malevolent technology becoming far too common

It used to be that news of some aggressive breach of network security would hit mainstream headlines once or twice a year. Then it became monthly, then weekly, then daily. Now it seems almost hourly.

In a strange perversion of Moore’s Law, the observation about computing capacity made by the founder of the Intel microchip company in the mid-60s, the speed of progress and our ever-increasing reliance on technology is matched only by the numbers and determination of individuals, gangs, and states to capture it and control it to our detriment.

At Government level, Ireland joined our EU neighbours France to highlight recent cyberattacks by Russian intelligence which underlined not only the threat to Ukraine, but to the security of Europe.

Recent failures of critical infrastructure in Spain, Portugal, and Britain have illustrated our dependence on hardware and software and the frightening speed with which systems can shut down and paralyse everyday life.

Government experts, and commercial network managers, typically do not like to comment on the number of incidents taking place each day, partly because they know this will undermine public confidence in the robustness of the systems upon which society is basing its trade, commerce, and many aspects of civil life.

However, the veil is often lifted when major attacks occur.

As the retail giant Marks & Spencer tried to come to terms this week with the ransomware attack which wiped nearly £700m off its market value, UK government figures showed that 74% of large businesses said they had been targeted by hackers throughout 2024.

The ransomware attack wiped nearly £700m off Marks and Spencer's market value.

With online deliveries suspended, M&S chief executive Stuart Machin appealed to customers to visit the stores in person. 

Some staff have resorted to a return to ink and paper to manage transactions while others say it is “like going back in time”.

The iconic high end department store Harrods and the Co-Op have also been hit in separate incidents this week.

If the inconveniences of disruption to online shopping habits represent an individual manifestation of threat to citizens, then at the other end of the scale are the transgressions of tech companies in transferring big data — information about us — around the world.

The Irish Data Protection Commission, acting on behalf of the EU, has fined TikTok, the video-sharing app, €530m for illegally transferring European users’ data to China, and ordered it to halt further transfers within six months.

This is the third highest penalty ever issued under the General Data Protection Regulation and the second fine to be issued by the IDPC against TikTok.

It previously imposed a €345m punishment in September 2023 when the company was found to have violated the privacy of young users aged between 13 and 17.

TikTok says it will appeal the finding but for consumers it is another example that the tools we are using to manage our lives, and entertain ourselves, deliver outcomes which are frequently not benevolent.