Paul Reid to be paid €50,000 to chair overhauled planning body

By Gráinne Ní Aodha, PA

Former HSE chief Paul Reid is to be paid a €50,000 salary to chair the State’s overhauled planning authority, the Housing Minister said.

The establishment of the new planning body was one of three housing proposals approved by Cabinet on Tuesday.

Mr Reid is to be the chairman of An Coimisiun Pleanala, which replaces An Bord Pleanala following allegations of conflicts of interest at the planning appeals body were raised in 2022.

A senior Government spokesman said Mr Reid was approached for the role by Housing Minister James Browne after a six-month competitive process through the Public Appointment Service “was ultimately successful”.

The minister said the overhauled planning authority would be “essential” and aim to provide more certain timelines for planning decisions.

Mr Browne said it was “the single most important agency” in the state that would require a “hands-on role”.

He said he identified Mr Reid, who headed up the HSE during the Covid-19 pandemic, as someone with “that governance experience, that management experience”.

“In terms of his salary, it would be 50,000 euro per year as chair of a board but Mr Reid would be expected to be very hands on, on an almost daily basis, engaging with the CEO, to ensure that this change of management happens as well with this new body.”

He added that this does not include per diems and said he would have to check on allowances.

The other six board members, who will take up their roles on Wednesday, barrister Peter Dennehy; former chief executive of the National Transport Authority Anne Graham; former director general of Law Society of Ireland Mary Keane; accountant Penelope Kenny; businessman Peter Madden and Michael Moriarty from the NGO sector.

The other two housing measures approved by Cabinet on Tuesday were emergency legislation to quickly introduce rent caps to a fifth of tenancies not already covered.

Mr Browne said he expected that the extension of rent controls to be approved by the Oireachtas this week.

“I am confident we can get it done this week, I am in the hands of the Houses of the Oireachtas,” he said.

He said they wanted greater uptake on the renters’ credit outlined as part of previous budget measures.

The third measure was to expand the role of the Land Development Agency, including its geographical area of operation and to develop key public lands through infrastructure investment.

He said different entities competing for limited land was “a real problem” and so he would be writing to local authorities in three weeks to encourage them to “significantly rezone land right across this country”.

The housing and planning measures come a week after the Government announced a swathe of rent and tenancy reforms.

Mr Browne, who admitted that rents in Ireland are “way too high”, said the measures would give renters “greater certainty” and would attract new investment in rental accommodation.

They included the extension nationwide of the rent pressure zone (RPZ) system, areas of high demand where rent increases are capped at inflation or 2 per cent, whichever is lower.

Rent increases in new developments will be capped only by inflation in an attempt to boost Ireland’s apartment supply, Mr Browne said.

Other rental reforms will kick in from March 1st, 2026: the offer of six-year-minimum rolling tenancies and a ban on no-fault evictions for large landlords, defined as having four or more tenancies.

The opposition has criticised the proposals as “a recipe for rocketing rents”, particularly a measure that sees rents “reset” to the market rate when a tenant voluntarily leaves a six-year-minimum tenancy.

Meanwhile, the Department of Housing is engaging with multiple potential candidates for the “housing czar” role at the top of the new Housing Activation Office.

A joint-opposition motion on housing and homelessness, which will be voted on on Tuesday, calls for the introduction of a no-fault eviction ban and greater use of compulsory purchase orders to “bring empty homes back into use”.

The motion is being proposed by Sinn Féin, Labour, the Social Democrats, People Before Profit, the Green Party and Independents.

A Raise The Roof protest will be held outside Leinster House at 6pm to coincide with the opposition motion.