Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My point is similar to the point just made. The witnesses do not need me to tell them that we have a housing crisis. There are many commercial factors contributing to that crisis, and undoubtedly this is one of them. A decision was made by An Bord Pleanála seven months ago. The Department says that it contacted local authorities and asked them to be vigilant and proactive on enforcement based on the decision made by An Bord Pleanála, the reasons for it and the conditions associated with it. It was said that the Department was issuing a circular in the coming weeks with a process by which to deal with future planning applications. The Department is asking local authorities to be proactive on enforcement, but there seems to be no effort to correlate the information from these platforms to ascertain what properties are being used for this purpose, where they are and if they have the relevant planning permission to do so. It is as simple as that. The urgency that is needed and required across a wide range of areas in terms of how we deal with this crisis is not evident, and it certainly is not evident in this instance.

I have no issue with the information and data that Dublin City Council has. I do not know where else it can be got. Of the 6,729 units, how many of them were previously used for long-term lettings? Can that be ascertained? If they have been identified in this exercise, why are local authorities, which have the relevant expertise, resources, funds and personnel, not ascertaining what progress, if any, can be made? Can the rule of law be enforced vis-à-visthe Bord Pleanála decision?

The Government is trying its best to deal with this issue. We are doing our best to try to inform it and push it in certain directions on other policy issues. It can address this issue, but the least we expect is some form of urgency. This crisis has been ongoing for the past three years. In this instance the contributing factor is accepted. I do not know if we necessarily need consultants to tell us the effect this is having on the rental sector. When I hear the word "consultants" I think of time and money being wasted. There is relevant, professional expertise within local authorities. We expect that they are put there to do a job that they are able to do and can do what is set out in their contracts, which is to ascertain the information, make it available to the executive and allow the members and the executive to make a decision together to address the issue. We do not have the time, space or money to wait on a consultant's report to tell us what is patently obvious to me and, I am sure, to many others. Primarily, my focus of attention is on the Department and its focus and implementation of the decision that was made by An Bord Pleanála and how it is seeking to rectify that to regulate the industry. The local authorities have the power within their own remit to do that. We hear of memorandums of understanding with Airbnb while a working group that was promised by the Taoiseach last January on foot of a Dáil question and that was to be put in place as soon as possible to deal with this issue has only met once. It is not good enough, and whoever is responsible needs to own up to that fact, to apologise, and to put in place a means by which this will be addressed. We do not need to be wasting our time on this issue any more than any other issue. Just do it, go ahead with it and get it done. Do not be annoying us about it.