Short-Term Letting and Tourism Bill 2026: Second Stage

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." I am pleased to introduce this important legislation to the House. The publication of this Bill represents a significant milestone in the development of a modern regulatory framework for short-term accommodation rentals in Ireland and in the fulfilment of our obligations under the EU Short-Term Rental Regulation. That regulation, which came into effect on 20 May, provides for the collection and sharing of data relating to short-term accommodation rental services and aims to enhance transparency and oversight across the sector. At its core, this Bill is about establishing a clear, fair and effective framework for the regulation of short-term letting in Ireland. It will ensure that hosts and platforms operate within a consistent set of rules, that public authorities have access to the information necessary to perform their functions effectively and that policymaking is informed by reliable evidence. Over the past decade, the short-term letting sector has undergone significant expansion. The emergence and growth of online platforms have transformed the way accommodation is marketed, booked and provided creating new opportunities for tourism and generating additional income for many property owners. As a result, short-term letting now forms a substantial and increasingly important part of Ireland's tourism accommodation offering. The scale of this activity is considerable. Pending the establishment of the national register, Fáilte Ireland continues to produce monthly estimates of online short-term letting activity based on data derived from online listings. These estimates indicate that as of September 2026, approximately 31,770 short-term letting properties were advertised across two of the largest booking platforms operating in the Irish market. Despite this growth, the State has lacked the tools necessary to obtain a complete and accurate picture of the sector. To date, there has been no comprehensive national register of short-term letting properties and limited mechanisms for gathering consistent information about activity in the market. As a result, policymakers and regulators have faced challenges in monitoring the sector and understanding its impact at national and local level. This Bill addresses that gap. It will establish for the first time a national registration framework for short-term lettings involving stays of up to 21 consecutive nights and will give effect to the data-sharing arrangements required under European Union law. The Bill designates Fáilte Ireland as the competent authority responsible for administering the framework. It will establish and maintain the national register, operate the single digital entry point required under the EU regulation and oversee the collection and sharing of relevant information. Together, these measures will provide a more comprehensive understanding of short-term letting activity across the State and support effective regulation of the sector. The benefits of this approach are significant. It will provide clarity and certainty for hosts regarding their obligations, establish consistent requirements for online platforms and ensure that public authorities have access to the information required to support informed decision-making in areas such as tourism, housing and regional development. Importantly, the framework also supports the Government's broader objective of ensuring that long-term residential accommodation is prioritised in areas experiencing housing pressures. In that regard, the Bill supports both tourism and housing policy objectives. Under the Bill, all hosts providing short-term accommodation rental services will be required to register with Fáilte Ireland, which will issue a unique registration number for each registered unit. Registration will be straightforward and fully online. The system has been designed to minimise administrative burden while ensuring that the information necessary for effective regulation is collected. A nominal registration fee of €25 will apply, which will be prescribed by Fáilte Ireland through regulations. Once registered, hosts will be required to display their registration number on all advertisements and listings relating to the accommodation unit. Fáilte Ireland will verify information submitted by hosts to ensure the accuracy and integrity of the register. The obligations established by the Bill do not rest solely with hosts. Online short-term rental platforms will also be required to play an active role in supporting compliance. Platforms must display registration numbers, conduct random checks on listings, submit specified rental activity data to Fáilte Ireland and remove or disable access to listings, where required by law. These obligations reflect the central role played by platforms within the short-term accommodation market and are fully aligned with the requirements of the EU short-term rental regulation. A regulatory framework is only as effective as its enforcement mechanisms. For that reason, the Bill provides Fáilte Ireland with the powers necessary to monitor compliance and investigate suspected breaches. The legislation provides for the appointment of registration officers and authorised officers with powers to conduct inspections, carry out investigations and require the production of records and information, where necessary. These powers are proportionate, practical and essential to the effective operation of the framework. The Bill also establishes a graduated enforcement regime. In the case of hosts, enforcement measures include fixed payment notices and summary offences. For online short-term rental platforms, the Bill provides for an administrative sanctions process where contraventions of legal obligations occur. Where appropriate, matters may be referred to an independent panel of adjudication officers that I will appoint. The panel will have the authority to determine whether a breach has occurred and, where warranted, to impose financial sanctions of up to 2% of annual worldwide turnover. This approach ensures that enforcement measures are proportionate, effective and accompanied by appropriate procedural safeguards. A key requirement of the registration process is that hosts must confirm that their accommodation is planning compliant. The Government recognises the importance of clarity and consistency in this area. Accordingly, the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy James Browne, obtained approval to publish the national planning statement for short-term letting activity on 3 November. The statement establishes a clear and consistent planning framework for the sector and provides certainty for hosts, local authorities and communities. The planning framework set out in the statement restricts the approval of new planning permissions for short-term letting activity in cities and larger towns with populations exceeding 20,000. At the same time, it provides a pathway for existing operators to regularise their position through a presumption in favour of granting retention permission in specified circumstances where properties have operated continuously as short-term lets for at least seven years and no enforcement action has been taken. A simplified administrative version of the application process for retention specifically for these short-term lets was introduced on 29 September 2026. The Bill does not alter the existing arrangements for genuine home-sharing. The letting of a room or rooms in a person's principal private residence will remain exempt from planning requirements. A home-sharer may also continue to let their entire principal private residence for up to 90 cumulative days per year while temporarily absent. Beyond that threshold, planning permission for change of use will continue to be required. The Bill also incorporates an important transitional arrangement for existing hosts. Hosts operating in locations with populations below 20,000 have a two-year period within which to regularise their planning position. This provides a proportionate pathway to compliance while supporting an orderly transition to the new framework. The legislation contains a number of additional reforms. It strengthens co-operation between Fáilte Ireland, public authorities and other competent bodies in the performance of their functions under both national and European legislation, including the short-term rental regulation and the Digital Services Act. The Bill also establishes a dedicated registration framework for limited visitor stays in purpose-built student specific accommodation. This is not a new activity. Many student-specific accommodation providers already accommodate visitors outside academic term time, making productive use of otherwise vacant capacity. Nationally, the supply of purpose-built, student-specific accommodation continues to expand, with 16,704 beds delivered since 2017, bringing total stock to more than 49,700 beds. Current projections indicate a need for approximately 42,000 additional student beds over the coming decade. The purpose of these provisions is to place existing practice on a clear statutory footing through a proportionate registration framework. Registration will operate on a three-year cycle and is designed to complement, rather than duplicate, existing registration requirements with the Residential Tenancies Board, which are focused on the landlord-tenant relationship. The new framework will provide greater transparency and regulatory oversight of visitor accommodation activity and is strategically important for tourism as it provides a clear regulatory basis for the continued use of otherwise vacant student accommodation during holiday periods. This supports accommodation capacity at times of peak demand, improves the efficient use of existing assets and contributes to a more resilient and sustainable tourism sector, while preserving the primary role of these developments as student accommodation. The Bill also modernises elements of Ireland's wider tourist accommodation regulatory framework. It updates provisions governing hotels, guesthouses, hostels, holiday camps, caravan sites and camping sites to reflect contemporary operational, administrative and regulatory requirements. At the same time, the legislation repeals a number of outdated provisions relating to accommodation categories that no longer reflect current tourism practices. A key element of these reforms is the introduction of an independent appeals process for decisions relating to statutory registers established under tourism legislation. While the original legislative framework, dating back to the Tourist Traffic Act 1939, did not provide for such a mechanism, modern regulatory systems place a strong emphasis on transparency, accountability and procedural fairness. The new appeals process will ensure that all registered accommodation providers have access to an independent review of registration and grading decisions, strengthening confidence in the administration of the registers and bringing the framework into line with modern standards of good regulatory practice. This Bill represents a practical and proportionate response to a rapidly evolving sector. It will establish, for the first time, a comprehensive national framework governing short-term letting activity across the State, strengthen regulatory oversight, improve the quality of information available to public authorities and ensure that Ireland fully implements its obligations under European Union law. Critically, the Bill will provide, for the first time, a comprehensive picture of tourist accommodation provision across the State. Through the establishment and modernisation of statutory registers, public authorities will have access to more complete, accurate and up-to-date information on accommodation providers and accommodation capacity. This enhanced visibility will support better policymaking, more effective enforcement and a stronger evidence base for decisions affecting tourism, housing and regional development. Beyond short-term letting, the Bill delivers the most significant modernisation of Ireland's tourist accommodation registration framework in decades, updating legislative provisions, strengthening governance arrangements and introducing independent appeals processes across a range of statutory registers. Most importantly, it reflects the Government's determination to address the impact that the growth of short-term letting can have on housing availability in areas facing significant housing pressures, while continuing to support a vibrant and sustainable tourism sector. By bringing greater transparency and oversight to the sector, the Bill will help ensure that homes are used for their intended purpose, provide policymakers with the information needed to respond to emerging pressures and support a more balanced approach to the use of accommodation across the State. In doing so, it will contribute to protecting housing supply for local communities, while maintaining the important role that tourism plays in our economy and regions. I look forward to engaging constructively with colleagues across the House as the Bill progresses through the legislative process. I thank Members for their time.

I put on record my complete opposition to the Minister's plan to rush the Short-Term Letting and Tourism Bill through the House. Doing so will severely hinder our collective ability to properly scrutinise this legislation. The Government has made an absolute shambles of this. Having had two and a half years to prepare the legislation, the Minister is now scrambling to meet his own deadline of 1 December, forcing through a Bill with serious implications for tourism, rural employment, local businesses and housing. The EU regulation was adopted in April 2024. The Government knew what was required and when it had to be delivered, yet the Minister has scheduled Committee Stage, Report Stage and Final Stage of this Bill for one single day next week. He has had two and a half years to prepare the legislation and is providing one day in the Dáil to scrutinise it. That is simply unacceptable. What makes this particularly disgraceful is the treatment of the organisations and individuals who took time and participated in the pre-legislative scrutiny. In the past year, at the Oireachtas Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, we engaged with stakeholders and listened to detailed evidence from tourism providers, housing organisations, local authorities and industry representatives. These organisations committed considerable time, resources and expertise to that process. They attended hearings, prepared submissions, answered questions and raised legitimate concerns about how these regulations would operate in practice. They did so in good faith, believing their input would contribute to the committee's recommendations and be laid before the Minister before the final legislation was published. Yet, the Minister went ahead and published the Bill on budget day - on budget day of all days - before our committee had even completed its pre-legislative scrutiny work or published the report. What message does that send to the groups and individuals we engaged with? It is that their time was wasted, their expertise was irrelevant and that the Government was simply going through the motions. There is considerable frustration among those stakeholders who feel completely disrespected by how the Minister has treated this process and they have every reason to feel that way. Pre-legislative scrutiny is supposed to improve the legislation, identify problems and ensure those affected have a meaningful opportunity to be heard. Instead, the Government has made a complete farce of this important parliamentary process. To make matters worse, much of the committee's work took place without the national planning statement being available - we begged and begged for it time and again - despite planning being one of the most contentious aspects of the entire framework. How could stakeholders properly assess the implications of the Bill, when such a fundamental part of the regulatory regime was missing? I will let my colleague, Deputy Ó Broin, who will speak next, highlight the concerns Sinn Féin has about the planning elements of the Bill but it is important to point out that the Committee on Housing, Local Government and Heritage did not have any role in the pre-legislative scrutiny of this Bill. Beyond the treatment of the Oireachtas and the stakeholders, another issue demands attention. It is the absolute disaster that has been the Government's communication with short-term letting providers about their new obligations. Across Mayo and throughout the country, people are contacting us because they simply do not know where they stand. These are people running legitimate tourism businesses, many of them small family operations, which have served their communities and visitors for years. They are worried about whether they will be able to continue trading. They are unsure whether their properties meet the new requirements, whether they need planning permission and what evidence they must provide. Up to now, they were also wondering what costs would be put on the planning process. I see that the Minister said it will be €25. The Government expects people to navigate these changes within an extraordinarily tight timeframe. The Fáilte Ireland register is due to open on 1 December, with the short-term letting operators required to register before 31 December. Who thought it was sensible to introduce such significant changes with a deadline falling during the Christmas period? What will happen if an application encounters difficulties when public offices are closed or operating reduced services? Where are the providers supposed to turn for reliable advice? People are being left to piece together information themselves, relying on industry groups, public representatives and conflicting interpretations of Government announcements. That is no way to treat people whose livelihoods depend on getting these decisions right. It is not simply uncertainty about paperwork. For some providers, it is uncertainty about their income, their investment and the future of their family businesses. These people feel completely disrespected. They have spent years providing accommodation, supporting local tourism and contributing to their communities. The least they deserve is clear information, reasonable timelines and a Government willing to engage properly with their concerns. I will turn briefly to the wider implications for tourism, particularly in rural Ireland. Tourism is an economic lifeline for communities in the west of Ireland, including places like Mayo. It supports thousands of jobs directly and indirectly and sustains hotels, restaurants, cafés, pubs, shops, transport operators and visitor attractions. In many rural communities, tourism is one of the few industries capable of generating substantial local employment and keeping young people living and working in the area. Self-catering accommodation is an essential part of that tourism economy in some areas. Traditional holiday cottages, converted farm buildings and family-run properties provide visitor accommodation in places where hotel capacity is limited. When visitors stay in Achill, Westport, Belmullet or Ballina, their spending supports businesses throughout the local economy. If that accommodation disappears, the impact will go far beyond the individual provider. This is where I have serious questions about the Government's approach. Has the Minister assessed how many tourism beds could be lost if providers withdraw from the market because of these regulations? What assessment has been carried out of the consequences for rural employment, visitor numbers and local businesses? Crucially, what is the Government's plan to mitigate any reduction in tourism accommodation capacity. Will there be incentives to encourage investment in additional hotel beds in rural and high amenity areas? Will small hotels, guest-houses and family-run accommodation providers be supported to expand? We cannot spend millions promoting the Wild Atlantic Way and encouraging tourists to visit the west and then fail to ensure there is sufficient accommodation for them. Building new hotel capacity takes time, investment and certainty. The Government needs to demonstrate it has thought this through and is not just hoping the market will adjust. Sinn Féin has consistently supported the regulation of short-term letting. We want properties returned to the long-term, residential market in areas where housing demand is acute. In recent decades, huge commercial investors have been allowed to buy up huge portfolios of properties in communities. These vulture funds make huge profits and pay very little tax. There has to be a clear distinction between that activity and legitimate rural tourism accommodation. Removing a traditional holiday cottage from the tourism market does not automatically create a permanent home but it could mean lost visitors, lost spending and lost employment. That distinction must be reflected in the implementation of these regulations. We support a national register, proper standards and effective enforcement but we also need a practical, affordable process for existing operators, sufficient resources for Fáilte Ireland and local authorities and a clear plan to protect local tourism capacity. Will the Minister explain how local authorities are expected to process thousands of additional planning applications or how Fáilte Ireland will have sufficient resources to enforce these new regulations? On 1 January next, will enforcement officers be out in force to inspect short-term let properties to ensure they are compliant? That gets to the heart of the fear and uncertainty that genuine short-term letting operators are feeling. This is not how legislation affecting thousands of businesses and communities should be handled. People deserve clarity, not confusion and they deserve proper legislation, not a last-minute rush to meet Government-imposed deadlines. I ask the Minister to provide that clarity this evening and to please reconsider his intention to rush this through the Dáil next week. It is far too important. The Minister needs to trust the local authorities, which know their areas, to be able to make decisions about getting the balance right between housing that is desperately needed for staff in hotels and other tourism amenities and the amount of accommodation needed in an area to support the tourism objectives in that area. Rushing this through is a mistake and it is one that will be regretted by the Government.

It is hard to over-estimate the extent of the mess the Minister and his colleague, Minister for housing, Deputy Browne, have made of this entire episode. We have been discussing the need to regulate short-term letting in this House for a decade, since I was elected in 2016. During that entire period, thousands of homes that were built for long-term residential occupation, predominantly in urban areas, but also some rural parts of the country, have been acquired by commercial interests and flipped into short-term letting. They have been breaking the planning laws of the State, in many cases for a decade. In turn, they have been having an enormous impact on our housing and homelessness crisis. This is the not the first time the Government has botched regulation of short-term letting. The Minister's party colleague, Eoghan Murphy, made a mess of his regulations in 2019. The proposal in front of us today started life in 2022. Deputy Conway-Walsh was absolutely right to highlight the absurdity of the length of time it has taken to get here compared with the amount of time we have to address the Bill in the House. It has been more than four years in the making and yet here we are. While there is virtually no opportunity to scrutinise the Bill, the planning policy statement that was agreed by the Cabinet yesterday has not undergone a single second of Oireachtas scrutiny. This planning policy statement is not a policy statement. It includes new planning law agreed by Cabinet without any debate, without any Oireachtas scrutiny or any opportunity for Members of the House to amend it and without a single vote. That is an utter disgrace. Not only has the Minister caused enormous confusion among the providers of much-needed tourism product in predominantly rural high-amenity areas, people who are using properties on their own land, properties that would never be in the rental market, but there is nothing at all in this planning policy statement that will see the return of long-term residential properties in housing estates in cities, towns and villages to long-term use. Let me explain why. The population threshold of 20,000 is utterly absurd. It is not based on any objective criteria of housing need, rental supply or homelessness. It is a grubby political fudge to keep this Government together and we are all the worse for it. There should be a lead-in period for folks in rural communities to be able to regularise planning. I have no issue with that, but I think two years is probably too long and much longer than I would have proposed. The really appalling part of James Browne's planning policy statement is a seven-year grandfather clause. What this document says is that regardless of being in an area population above or below 20,000, someone who has been breaking the planning rules of this State for seven years or more up to 1 December will get a get-out-of-jail-free card and will get a presumption to grant planning permission. This applies even to a large commercial entity that has snapped up family properties all over the State and is letting them out on short-term lets for higher amounts of money. That is particularly bad in our large urban centres, but it will also be really bad for communities in the Connemara Gaeltacht, parts of the Cooley Peninsula and elsewhere. This is not about supporting much-needed tourism product - we support that. It is about allowing people who have broken our planning laws consistently to be rewarded and allowed to do so into the future. How do I know? It is because the report the Government commissioned from the Housing Agency, produced by Indecon, found that 70% of those people advertising properties, particularly home properties, on Airbnb have been trading for over seven years. Unless a tiny number of these have been hit with enforcement under the Eoghan Murphy rule - that really is a very small number - they will all get through straight away. Those of us who were on the housing committee together discussed these issues for a long time before the Minister moved to his current portfolio. In addition to the genuine concerns that my colleague Deputy Conway-Walsh raised with respect to the tourist economy in rural and high-amenity areas, this will not do a single thing to assist those of us whose primary interest is the supply of long-term residential homes to buy or rent and addressing growing levels of homelessness. That is why the Minister has got this so wrong. We set out an alternative; we showed him time and time again how this could be done properly to get that balance in those rural high-amenity areas but also get those properties that got planning permission for long-term residential use back into long-term residential occupation. The Minister has ignored us, just as Eoghan Murphy did in 2019. As a consequence, not only will this planning policy statement and the planning regime be as much of a failure as its predecessor in 2019, but we will end up with the weakest short-term letting regulations in Europe. That is not something for the Minister to shout about. It is a bad day's work in the Oireachtas, and it is why he should not be proceeding on the basis that he has outlined today.

Many short-term letting operators offer a great service that people enjoy. They offer alternatives to traditional accommodation, often enhanced, or unique options and experiences for tourists in particular that fill gaps, especially in rural communities like the one I come from. They might otherwise not sustain a more traditional commercial accommodation operation, but the unregulated nature and the proliferation of short-term lets in both urban and rural communities have in effect incentivised the conversion of family homes into commercial short-term lets, as well as impacting the private rental sector. In the midst of a housing crisis, that is not in any way sustainable and it should not have been tenable for so long. However, for a long time, the Government has allowed these negative impacts to fester and proliferate through its failure to regulate the sector appropriately. This, of course, has contributed to the housing crisis where we now have upwards of 18,000 people homeless in this country. It has also fostered confusion and concern among short-term letting agents. I welcome the fact that the Government is finally seeking to regulate short-term lets, but it should not be at the cost of long-term homes. Unfortunately, even at this point the Minister's approach is beset with a seeming lack of transparency. There is fake urgency on the part of the Government, while it continues to beget concern and uncertainty within the sector itself. Sinn Féin supports regulation. We believe that people should be able to utilise their principal private residence for short-term letting for up to 90 days per year when they are not present, or spare rooms throughout the year, with no planning requirements. In more rural and high-amenity tourism areas, a flexible approach is justified for family-run tourism products in buildings that are not suitable for long-term homes while restricting the flipping of family homes into short-term lets. In urban areas where there is high demand for long-term housing, communities where few homes are available for rent and homelessness is at record levels, homes should be used for the purpose for which they were granted planning permission, to be people's homes. This is a common-sense and practical approach. Sinn Féin supports the creation of a short-term letting register to ensure compliance. What has lacked common sense until this point has been the Government's approach. There has been a failure to take action for many years, which has caused frustration and consternation among both housing bodies and short-term letting agencies conceived for the tourism industry, yet we see a fake urgency manufactured through the Government's inaction, which saw the Bill published before the enterprise committee had even concluded pre-legative scrutiny. Nor has the housing committee had an opportunity to weigh in yet regarding the planning aspects of the Bill. Now the Minister wants to proceed to Report and Final Stages next week. This is very poor legislative practice. It is an affront to the Oireachtas committee and the role the Dáil plays in scrutinising legislation. It is in effect treating these Houses as an annoying rubber stamp to the policy proposals. The Irish people deserve a high standard of legislative practice from their Government and so do short-term letting operators. I appeal to the Minister to reflect on this and meaningfully engage with both the Opposition and committees before we go any further with it.

I echo the points made. The Social Democrats are concerned about rushing through this legislation despite years of the Government dragging its feet. It is very poor governance and it is not taking the Oireachtas seriously. Doing things like this actually undermines our democracy. After years of failing to act, suddenly the Minister is saying we have a very short period in which to offer amendments, put in changes and debate it. It is a failure to take the Opposition seriously and to take this Dáil seriously. The biggest social issue facing this country is the housing disaster. Our housing system is dysfunctional in many ways, but nowhere is that more stark than in the use of short-term lets in our housing market. Thousands of complete homes are being let out on a permanent basis as short-stay accommodation on platforms like Airbnb when young people and increasingly older people who cannot find a home to rent or buy are either in emergency accommodation or stuck in what is really hidden homelessness. A generation of adults are stuck living in their childhood box room. I spoke to a pensioner in Santry in my constituency last week. She is 65 years of age and she is couch surfing with different family members every other week because she cannot afford to rent somewhere. I spoke to teachers and nurses on the pickets who are in their late 20s and are still living at home, or commuting crazy distances and then doing a day's work or a night shift. They were from Wexford, Louth, Monaghan - all places - spending hours in a car to get to Dublin because they cannot find a home to rent or buy. Young people are unable to stay in the places that they come from, especially our Gaeltacht areas, because there is not a home to find, yet there are 34,000 homes to rent out as short-term lets on Airbnb and other platforms. This is almost as many homes as the Government delivered in terms of supply last year. Almost an entire year of housing supply, thousands of homes, are being let out short term on a permanent basis. This is not about a room in your house. It is about landlords, multiple property owners and, increasingly, various property companies and property investors who have turned homes, which should be available on the long-term rental market to provide a home to a nurse or a teacher, into cash cows for property investors on Airbnb and other short-term platforms. Across this city and country, every area is affected and has had homes removed from the rental market, which instead have been maxed out on Airbnb. The best evidence of this, where the negative impact of short-term lets and Airbnb on our housing market became so clear, was during Covid. The Minister might remember that Airbnb and short-term lets could not function during Covid. What happened? Thousands of properties suddenly became available. People were able to move from emergency accommodation into these rental properties. For the only time in a decade, homelessness was reduced significantly because Airbnb and short-term lets could not function. They could not operate. It is direct evidence that Airbnb and short-term lets are contributing to the homelessness and housing crisis. If they did not exist, thousands of homes would be available for people. The previous Government actually recognised that four years ago. Darragh O'Brien said, "We know that significant numbers of properties have been withdrawn from the long-term rental market in recent years and diverted for use as short-term lettings, negatively impacting on the supply and availability of private residential rental accommodation", and he was right. The Government then introduced planning requirements that aimed to return 12,000 short-term lets. Those planning requirements were never enforced. Short-term lets continued. In April 2025, the Government stated that there would be a requirement for short-term lets to get planning and register in the case of towns with a population of greater than 10,000, which is also in the housing plan, but what happened? It was increased to 20,000 because of the Healy-Raes and their involvement in government. They are gone, but the Government is continuing their legacy with gusto. Imagine a family with young children who are renting a home and receive a notice to quit from a landlord, or imagine a couple in their 30s still living in their childhood bedrooms. They are desperate to find somewhere to rent and they look on Daft but there is nothing. If they look on Airbnb, however, there is property after property. I am contacted by people who say this to me. They are absolutely frustrated, broken and angry. They cannot find somewhere to rent, but Airbnb lists thousands and thousands of properties. It is enraging and depressing our young people. The failure to act on short-term lets has a particular negative impact on our Gaeltacht communities. Tá an ghéarchéim tithíochta inár gceantair Ghaeltachta ag cur thodhchaí na Gaeilge mar theanga bheo i mbaol. Our Gaeltacht areas are facing an existential crisis as there is nowhere for young people growing up there to live, while what they see are short-term lets everywhere. I ask the Minister to go on Airbnb and then daft.ie. Today, on Airbnb for Gaoth Dobhair in Dún na nGall, you can choose 22 properties to stay in, but not one is available on daft.ie. In Corca Dhuibhne in Kerry, including Daingean Uí Chúis, 139 properties are on Airbnb and just one is on daft.ie, which is actually a two-bedroom apartment available for only eight months of the year at €1,600 per month. Mar is ghéarcheantair turasóireachta cois cósta iad cuid mhaith de na ceantair Ghaeltachta is láidre sa tír, tá drochthionchar ag Airbnb ar an nGaeltacht sa mhéid is go mbíonn sé an-deacair agus costasach ar chainteoirí Gaeilge ón nGaeiltacht nó ag obair sa Ghaeltacht áit chónaite a aimsiú. That is why we will be putting forward a number of amendments to this legislation, which are also supported by Conradh na Gaeilge, Threshold, the Simon Community, Tinteán and BÁNÚ. These amendments will look to bring these areas under the restrictions. It is unacceptable that these areas will not be subject to any restrictions or planning requirements for another two years. These organisations have highlighted these areas. This is Conradh na Gaeilge and the Simon Communities. The Government is not listening to these organisations. They are very serious. They are representing people who are either in Gaeltacht areas or in homelessness, and the Government is ignoring them. I really hope the Government will take on board their amendments. One of the most obvious flaws of the legislation is that it is not providing for towns and cities with populations under 20,000, which will leave large parts of the country with no new controls. The Government promised four years ago, even longer ago, that it would clamp down on short-term lets, yet here we are and it is giving another two years. It has been years and years of delay, which shows that the Government is not serious about clamping down on short-term lets. What it actually wants to do is give the pretense of doing something but not actually doing it at all. It appears that this is another policy designed to fail. The question is about enforcement. How will these rules actually be enforced? The Minister mentioned fines and other aspects, but who is going to enforce them? There is no clarity around that. If a declaration is made by a short-term let owner, what does that declaration involve? We need clarity on that. Why should the declaration not be clear and show the planning permission that has actually been achieved? There is not clarity on that, and we need to see that.

One of the greatest challenges faced by both employers and communities is the current lack of housing in this State, and a key aspect of this legislation is the impact this has on enterprise and on businesses. When it comes to questions of regulation and the facilitation of tourism, we can often get siloed in our thinking and see the benefits and challenges faced only by a particular kind of business without focusing on our wider economy. In pre-budget submissions, conversations with business owners and wider society, we constantly hear that one of the biggest challenges facing businesses in Ireland, particularly in the tourism sector, is that they cannot get staff because those staff cannot find anywhere to live. In areas best known for tourism in this country, the local communities who make up the workforce of our cafés, hotels, shops and tour companies have been pushed out of their own areas. If there is no community, there is no workforce. This is the balance that needs to be restored across our country. It means that a café with the demand to open seven days a week that only has the staff to open four days misses out on the benefits of tourism in its area. Regulation of short-term lets ensures proper balance between allowing for holiday rentals and ensuring that the number of holiday rentals is not creating a situation whereby nobody can live in areas popular with tourists. It is that simple. I welcome the fact that there are steps in this Bill to address this issue, but they must go further. I have serious concerns with the overall approach from the Government. This issue has a particular impact, as my colleague said, on rural and Gaeltacht communities. Má labhraíonn an tAire le daoine i gCorca Dhuibhne, sa Daingean, i gConamara agus in iarthar Chorcaí déarfadh siad leis nach féidir le daoine óga fanacht sa mbaile. Ní féidir leo clann a thógáil. Ní féidir leo saol a dhéanamh dóibh féin mar ní féidir leo tithe a fháil mar gheall ar líon na Airbnb sna ceantair Ghaeltachta seo. I will return to this later, but particularly in the context of a grandfathering role, I need to highlight that this is far from a new problem. Tá an fhadhb seo ann le fada agus tá tionchar aige ar thodhchaí na teanga agus meath na Gaeiltachta. Caithfear an reachtaíocht seo a athrú le cuimsiú go mbeidh ceantair Ghaeltachta faoina mbráid. It is not good enough that there would be like light-touch rules in the Gaeltachtaí and a two-year delay because they have no areas with a population over 20,000. The purpose of this Bill should be to provide them with the proper oversight and protection they need so that Irish speakers will be living and growing there into the future. That is a clear gap in this legislation that must be addressed on Committee Stage. It is important to acknowledge that not every short-term let is appropriate to be turned into a long-term rental, but we know that many properties on Airbnb and similar platforms are normal residential homes. Currently, the system does not distinguish at all between a heritage railway cottage that could not be occupied year round, a log cabin that is fine for a weekend but inappropriate for permanent occupancy, or a three-bedroom semi-detached house in a residential estate that could and should be a much-needed home. The only way to ensure we distinguish between these is proper regulation and planning. This kind of policymaking will deliver well beyond the acute housing challenges we face. It will also level the playing field in the tourism sector such that accommodation providers using appropriate properties and complying with the rules will be able to run their businesses. This is only possible where there is balance within communities so that the sector works for our communities and our society. We need policy to reflect that goal. We have a long tradition of self-catering accommodation as part of our tourism sector. In particular, it has facilitated an income stream for women in rural Ireland, who had limited opportunities in decades past. However, platforms like Airbnb and the short-term lets boom have turned a sector that could have been sustainable and worked for communities into one rife with exploitation and which disadvantages businesses and ordinary people in those communities. Let us remember these same companies continued to export services to the occupied territories due to the failure of our occupied territories Bill to cover services. Proper legislation of short-term lets is long overdue. We have required planning permission since 2019 but, due to weak enforcement and a lack of resources for planning authorities, we have had an incredible level of non-compliance. Of the tens of thousands of short-term lets in this country, only 1.3% have applied for planning since 2019. This is frustrating for ordinary people who comply with planning rules to build their homes and for other businesses that must use properties with the appropriate planning permission and pay rates on them to boot. It is also frustrating that this long-overdue action was only sparked by the impending introduction of EU rules, despite the clear effect unregulated short-term lets were having on Ireland. This leaves untouched those communities who have faced this problem for longest. It leaves off the hook the operators who have already gone seven years without complying with the planning requirements and it locks us into a situation that has proved disastrous for so many communities across this island.

Let us be honest: this Bill goes nowhere near far enough. We are in the middle of a housing emergency. The measure of this legislation must be how many homes it brings back into use for people who desperately need them. Almost 17,000 properties are being used entirely for short-term letting in areas of high housing demand like the one I represent in Dublin Central. Thousands of those could potentially be returned for long-term housing. Think about what that would mean. Families would get out of emergency accommodation where they are living in some of the worst circumstances of anyone in the country. Young people would get a chance to move out of their parents' box rooms - people in their 30s, 40s, 50s and even 60s still living at home. People would finally have somewhere to build a life. Two houses on the North Strand, which back on to where I live, have lock boxes outside them. We see them all over the city. Anyone who lives in this area will see the high number of Airbnbs littered around. These houses are vacant for six, seven or eight months of the year. Two homes that could be used by families and be part of a community are just lying vacant for most of the year. There are huge issues with Airbnbs in the north inner city and in Dublin Central as a whole. This week I got an email from a resident of a building that contains an Airbnb. He described weekly disruptions from parties, fire alarms being triggered, security doors being broken and drug use by those staying in the apartments. It has got to the point where these incidents are affecting residents' safety, security and enjoyment of their own homes and communities. Instead of doing everything possible to bring those homes back, the Government is proposing to favour granting permission to properties that have operated as short-term lets for seven years without enforcement action. Where an operator has failed to get the permission they needed, why should the State's failure to act now count in its favour? What are we saying to the people who follow the rules? What are we saying to the families who have spent years in hotel rooms or bed and breakfast accommodation and in some of the worst living conditions anywhere in the country, if not Europe at this stage?

As a TD for Dublin South-Central, I have two conflicting issues. Dublin South-Central has massive tourist attractions. Dublin 8 is blessed to have so many attractions but there is also a massive housing issue. Every one of my clinics has people coming to me who are living in emergency accommodation or where generations of people are living in one home so they do not have to go to emergency accommodation. They are in overcrowded and unacceptable housing situations. In September, there were 15,005 people on Dublin City Council's housing list. When we have short-term lets, as we currently do, around the city, they could be people's homes. In Dublin South-Central there is a conflict. We want the tourists to come but we also want people to have places to live in. If you are a student in Dublin 8, you will have plenty of accommodation but it will not be affordable. That is only for the international students who can come. If you are a tourist, you will have loads of hotels to stay in. Before coming into the Chamber, I had a look at some of the short-term letting platforms. There are almost 250 places I could have stayed in for a couple of nights if I was a tourist, but they could be somebody's home. This city is becoming vacant as a place to thrive and live because people cannot afford to live here. Young people cannot afford the rents and they certainly cannot afford to buy a home. That is why we have shortages in our healthcare and education services. I have also spoken to business owners who cannot get staff. Soon we will have an empty facade. There will be nobody in the pubs except the tourists. I do not know who will work in them. We have to do something about housing in this city.

I attended the enterprise committee for the Bill's pre-legislative scrutiny last year. Since I moved into my current brief, it appears there have been delays and changes. It is hugely disappointing to see the shape the Bill has taken since I attended that committee. Let me be clear: the unmanaged growth of short-term lets needs to be halted. A register is required, with lettings subject to planning compliance and a system of enforcement. To the extent those things are provided for in the Bill, it is to be welcomed, but the regulatory impact has been watered down significantly. Of the approximately 20,000 full homes being used for short-term letting, Fáilte Ireland estimates 10,000 could be brought back into long-term use. That would be a huge injection into the long-term rental market, providing homes for thousands of families, but there is a real risk the Bill in its current form will not achieve that. The exemption of towns with populations under 20,000 represents a cynical approach to regulation by the Government. It completely undermines the purpose of the Bill and will neutralise its impact in some of the worst affected areas, towns like Dingle, Dalkey, Westport and Kinsale. The Bill will require significant amendment on Committee Stage. Planning exemptions are problematic. It appears the clause in section 47 exempting short-term lets in those smaller towns from planning compliance requirements for two years only mandates regularisation for lettings that already exist at the time the legislation is brought into effect. In Dublin City Hall there is a statue to Thomas Drummond with the inscription, "Property has its duties as well as its rights." We would do well to heed that warning and strengthen this legislation on Committee Stage.

I am standing here in my capacity as Cathaoirleach of the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment. I commend and thank Members from Government parties and from the Opposition. I recognise the contribution of Deputy Conway-Walsh. I am joined by Deputy Clendennen and others from the committee who have spoken on this matter. Unfortunately, I have to report to the House and the Minister that there is a general sense of disappointment at how the committee has been treated by the Department, while taking into account that two Departments are involved, namely, the Department of housing and the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment. I believe the body of work we did was significant. As Cathaoirleach of the committee, I want to acknowledge and thank everybody who came before us to argue for their side of the debate, including those who decided to invest in Airbnb accommodation as a source of subsidiary income, whether they did it out of economic necessity or choice. Around rural Ireland, farmyards and cottages have been done up and an accidental landlord may have come into ownership of a residential property with the intention of making an income from it in retirement or of staying at home and taking it on as a second career. There are many different lanes to this debate. I acknowledge what Opposition Members have said and take into account the fact that Ireland is a country with 18,000 people who are homeless. There is an huge difference between high-pressure areas in cities like Dublin, Cork, Galway and Limerick, as well as places in rural Ireland where homelessness is an issue, and communities that rely on tourist accommodation to bring economic activity into their areas, which must be separated out. My home town is Youghal. We were victims, quite frankly, of blatant disregard in the acquisition of hotels for use as IPAS centres.