Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am probably repeating myself, but we have to find the balance between tourism needs and the needs of the rental sector. We have all provided examples of it. The Minister has said that he will issue a blanket ban as a starting point. In Wicklow there are three rental pressure zones, being Bray, Greystones and Wicklow town. Wicklow is my local electoral area and I have my own business in Glendalough. There are very few hotels in that area. Even the hotel in the Wicklow town has been closed. My hotel is in Glendalough, but it is the only significant hotel accommodation in my local electoral area. Glendalough is the honeypot that keeps Wicklow going, and the tourism sector there requires Airbnb properties. There are many such properties, and in Wicklow town, where there is now no hotel, they are the only option and the only way tourism can be sustained in the immediate future.

A developer in Wicklow County Council looking at the county development plan policy, which clearly states an aim to support tourism, will see an immediate contradiction. Housing requirements dictate that we need properties too. What is the decision going to be? Who is making the call?

Knowing this area quite well, there is also a shortage of hotels in Greystones and Bray. If everybody in Bray, Greystones and Wicklow who is currently operating a short-term letting platform has to apply for planning permission, I am not sure whether the resources are there in Wicklow to deal with that. I do not know what level of communication there has been between the Department and Wicklow County Council with regard to this forthcoming regulation. The same could perhaps be applied elsewhere. It comes back to the tourism matter. That is a practical example.