2026-04-21

I want to raise serious and growing concerns regarding the proposed short-term letting and tourism Bill, and in particular the manner in which it is being progressed. The Bill has not yet been published, yet significant changes have already been signalled to thousands of small operators, family businesses and rural communities. Can the Minister of State clarify when the legislation will be published in full and why stakeholders have been asked to prepare for compliance in the absence of clear statutory text? Second, will he outline whether the Government intends to allow proper pre-legislative scrutiny and meaningful engagement with affected groups, or whether the intention is to fast-track or rush the Bill through the Houses, despite the scale of its impact on tourism, rural employment and local economies? Many of the concerns being raised are coming directly from the grassroots, small accommodation providers, self-catering operators, mixed-use homeowners and rural hosts, who are telling us very clearly that the approach is not going to work. Does the Minister accept that legislation without clarity, buy-in or realistic implementation timelines risks repeating the mistakes we have seen with poorly handled policy roll-outs, where public anger and non-compliance followed instead of constructive outcomes? There remains a complete lack of clarity around development and planning. Will the Minister explain how the proposed registration system is intended to interact with planning law, particularly in circumstances where properties were never intended for long-term residential use, where planning permissions were granted decades ago or where accommodation consists of cabins, extensions, converted outbuildings or holiday units? Will the Minister confirm whether people will be required to seek retrospective planning permission, what criteria local authorities will apply and whether national planning guidelines will be issued in advance of any enforcement? At present, constituents are being told they may not be able to trade but nobody can tell them what rules they will actually be assessed against. Will the Minister explain how this Bill is expected to support tourism policy, particularly in rural and coastal areas where hotels and large-scale accommodation simply do not exist? What assessment has been carried out regarding the impact on local jobs, seasonal employment and the viability of tourism outside major urban centres? Will the Minister commit today to publishing the legislation in full, ensuring adequate scrutiny and providing clear guidance on development and planning, and genuinely engage with those affected before asking them to comply? People do not object to regulation. What they object to is uncertainty, unfairness and being kept in the dark. Will the Minister address it? It has been well over 12 months or more since this legislation was first discussed. These are genuine people who are from all over my constituency. My mother ran a bed and breakfast in the 1970s so I know well the benefit it brought. It basically fed us. Those are the basics. These are hard-working people, mainly women. These are hard-working women who work at home and can run an Airbnb. The legislation as it was meant to be brought before us was scandalous. I attended the Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment and I heard the planners inside saying "tick away the box that you have no planning and don't worry at all". When I asked them whether they would put that in writing so I could hand that out to my constituents, they would not do it because the Minister of State knows as well as I do. Regarding anyone telling me or the Minister of State here to tick a planning box and then they will say we are fine if we are not complying, the bottom line is that all these people's businesses have survived down through the decades with the planning that was there already. What we're saying is that there should be registration but no planning guidelines are needed for anyone unless he or she is a new Airbnb operator setting up tomorrow morning.

In April of last year, the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment obtained Government approval for the general scheme of the short-term letting and tourism Bill. Once enacted, this Bill will provide a statutory framework for regulating the short-term letting sector, including the establishment of a national register. The register will operate in compliance with the EU Short-Term Rental Regulation (EU) 2024/1028, which comes into effect on 20 May 2026. The register will be operated by Fáilte Ireland and will commence following the enactment of the necessary legislation. While the Minister is charged with the establishment of the register, the planning elements and requirements fall under the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Tourism is a vital part of the Irish economy, supporting 227,000 jobs and generating €6 billion in 2024. I fully recognise concerns about the impact on rural tourism and local economies of reducing short-term let, STL, availability. Fáilte Ireland estimates that approximately 34,020 STL properties were advertised online in the State in October 2025 based on screen-scraped data from four major booking platforms. Up to 64% were listed as entire houses or apartments. This represents a 26% increase from an estimated 26,960 units in October 2022. In Cork, around 3,300 STL units were listed in October 2025, of which 63% were advertised as entire properties. This represents a 22.6% increase from an estimated 2,690 listed in October 2022. On 9 February last, the Cabinet committee on housing agreed planning conditions for short-term letting activity as part of a broader Government strategy to tackle the housing shortage. This agreement provided that, following the introduction of the short-term letting register, accommodation providers based in towns with a population of 20,000 or less at the last census based on the census town boundaries defined by CSO will have two years to meet planning compliance requirements, and accommodation providers based in towns with a population of more than 20,000 at the last census will need to confirm planning compliance on registration with no further lead-in period if they wish to register with Fáilte Ireland. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is finalising a national planning statement under the Planning and Development Act 2024. This will be brought to Government shortly and will provide a clear overall policy approach both at national and local authority level to enable planning authorities to determine planning applications for short-term lets across the country.

The Minister of State is saying here that people will have to have complied by 20 May 2026. I spent the past seven or eight weeks in the Dáil trying to bring the Minister before us. I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State. He is not the correct Minister to be here because he has nothing to do with tourism. I am not disrespecting the Minister of State. He has to do it. He is busy enough without being dragged into this. It is a disgrace that a Minister for tourism in the course of seven or eight weeks has failed to come before the Dáil to talk about something that affects tens of thousands of people's lives in this country and that has to be signed up to by 20 May. It is outrageous. That is what it is. The Minister of State cannot be carrying the can for it but he is certainly being forced to carry the can. Is this a tactic the Government is using now and is it another attack on the people of rural Ireland? I have mentioned it several times in the Dáil and the Taoiseach has said to me there will be no problem at all, not to worry at all and that it is all in my head. God almighty, what the Government is going to do is down here in a document. People are being given two years to be planning compliant. That is wipeout in two years. It is a case of kick the can down the road for a few months - that is all it is - instead of understanding the crisis we have at present, which is that the Government is going to wipe out tourism. We got two years out of it and that was a hell of a struggle, but that is not good enough. I pay tribute to Sarah Cronin. We have held public meetings on this with rooms full of people who are seriously concerned about the little bit of side income they had but the Government never listened and never sat down with them. The Government did not give a damn, basically. I live in an area that totally depends on this income. I spoke to the Taoiseach here about the lady in Courtmacsherry and others who walked out because they could not cope with the pressure being put on them. There would have been no need for that if the Government had sat down and spoken to the people who were running the businesses down through the years and come up with a solution, but not this, which is a can-kicking exercise and then ruin in two years' time. That is basically what is written down here. I do not do Airbnb but the Government knows damn well that if I had to get a planning officer to come out for compliance, it could cost me €100,000, €150,000 or €200,000. The Government is going to wipe out the industry.

I set out the position and the increase in the number of short-term lettings, even since 2022. The regulation the Deputy mentioned does impose obligations on the State to provide a register. That was passed with almost nobody voting against it in the European Parliament. Nearly 500 members of the European Parliament supported that. As set out in the A New Era for Irish Tourism document published last December, the introduction of regulatory controls for short-term letting is intended to ensure that tourism develops in a manner that recognises and complements the broader economic and social needs of local communities. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is currently finalising the national planning statement on the Planning and Development Act for short-term lets. That will establish a clear and coherent policy framework at national and local level. There are currently 34,000 short-term lets in Ireland, which is a huge increase since 2022. I acknowledge what the Deputy is saying about the income dependency in certain parts of the country. The Government has acknowledged that but there has been massive growth in the sector in the past three years, so it is necessary then to use regulatory measures to provide appropriate oversight and to ensure a balance between the needs the Deputy is rightfully describing and the needs of the long-term rental market. The Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment recognises that short-term lets play an important role in the tourism sector, especially in regional and rural areas where there is limited accommodation for tourists - we get that - and where the development of accommodation at scale might not be economically viable. The Deputy mentioned properties that are not suitable for long-term letting. We know that, but the Minister is continuing to work with the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage to ensure clarity can be provided and a lead-in time for operators can be agreed to so that we get that balance between the needs of the people the Deputy is talking about, whom we all represent, and obviously the needs of people who are looking for long-term housing in the country.