Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

To make a high-level point, we have to try to regulate the sector. It is important that we do. I have always said that going at it through the planning Acts is not perfect but it is a good approach. It is necessary even if one is talking about regulating the sector in addition. I will come back to why it is necessary.

Let us be very clear that this change will not affect those outside rent pressure zones. If someone is engaged in short-term letting in Kerry, they may continue to do so because it is not a rent pressure zone. Holiday homes will not be covered, as I stated. The holiday home element of the tourism industry will not be affected by these changes.

Regulations are needed and are coming. They are needed for a host of reasons, not just in connection with the number of properties available to rent in a city such as Dublin. We have recently seen issues associated with hidden cameras. Hoteliers will tell one about people staying in a home-share or short-term let not having the same rights or protections in law and not being assured of the same standards. They will make all those points themselves. They all lend themselves to a type of regulation of short-term letting that I agree with. I use the platforms in question when I travel and have been open about that. They are now a big part of our economy and the sector will grow. I refer not only to letting but to other areas where the shared economy is now making inroads and disrupting traditional business models.

With regard to the practicality, I acknowledge that this will require more resources for planning authorities because we are asking them to take on a new function. We are going to provide them with the resources to do that. The activity is very transparent because the platforms are public. That is how it works. It cannot work unless it is very transparent. It is very easy to ascertain, through public searching, what is going on in a given property. Residents all know the short-term letting house on their road. They see people coming in at certain times of the day or leaving at certain times of the night. They will have the wheelie-case. I do not believe it is a hidden activity. It is happening right in front of us and that is why I believe regulation will not be as difficult as trying to discover whether someone's extension three roads into an estate actually complies with planning permission guidelines.

This will have an impact on the tourism industry in Dublin. However, some short-term letting will continue because we have purpose built short-term letting accommodation. A place in Temple Bar was built for that reason and got planning permission to do that. There are also thousands more hotel beds being built. The tourism industry is incredibly strong in this country and in Dublin, and if there is some displacement effect it is probably okay if it means people go to parts of the country outside Dublin to holiday and spend money. While I am a member of the Government my responsibility is for housing. We have a shortage in housing supply so I aim to use every tool available to me to get as many homes back into the traditional rental stock as I can. That is what we are trying to do through the planning law.

This is enabling legislation. The meat of it is in the guidelines which we will lay before the House and discuss shortly. These changes give a mechanism in primary legislation, as we have a vehicle in the rent Bill, to allow us to get to the nub of what we are trying to do. They will do the heavy lifting. In the type of regulation the Deputy referred to he still discussed planning permission, regardless of whether he meant to do that. When we go to regulation of short-term letting platforms it will still require some element of the planning system. When we looked at what other cities have done, that has been used in some instances. In an ideal world we would have both the changes to the planning law that I am proposing today and also regulation that would do more than just regulate the number of properties but would regulate how these properties are used. At present, that type of regulation is left to the platforms. Rights in terms of whether there was a breach of the agreement a person had in letting the property over a weekend fall to be remediated by the company, but there probably should be more robust regulations in law so people have rights outside of what the company says are their rights.