Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for being with us and for outlining the intent of this significant and groundbreaking legislation. I have concerns about what we are setting out to do. They centre mostly around tourism in rural Ireland and in places that are not what we might describe as the big beasts or traditional destinations for tourists throughout the country. I live in a small east Galway village, Carrabane, which is about 15 minutes from Athenry and 10 minutes from Loughrea. Until the advent of Airbnb, we never saw tourists from any country in our community, in any context. Approximately five years ago, three different providers began renting accommodation, one of whom - Bookeen Hall - is regularly cited on news sites around the world as being one of the best Airbnbs in the world. Members can look it up if they want. The owners of Bookeen Hall began using a spare room in their home and in another instance a castle that had been repurposed and had a couple of rooms spare was used. Another local farm family turned one of their farm sheds into an Airbnb. All three of those providers have been exceptionally successful. Now, when I go on my walk in the local forest, I meet people from Spain, Germany, Italy and recently, Scotland. Without that Airbnb presence, that was never going to happen.

We need to be exceptionally careful in protecting that aspect of Irish tourism, which has been, from my perspective, a most welcome intervention on the part of a big multinational. It is empowering rural communities across this country to showcase their homes, communities and all the amenities that they are proud to have, such as the forest walk, to the world on an immensely stable, simple and straightforward platform that is successful not just here in Ireland, but across the world. In anything we set out to do here, we must strive to protect that to the greatest extent. I will make proposals to amend certain elements of this legislation, which I have been informed by those very people and indeed the advocacy groups that are now emerging on their behalf have the potential to threaten their livelihoods and additional income.

As witnesses and members will appreciate, many of these are rural farm families. Any additional income one can generate from one's farm holding is most welcome. Second, there is a growing number of accommodation providers in Dublin and perhaps in Cork, Galway and Limerick to an extent. They are anywhere where we have a large multinational investment presence, and they offer what one might describe as semi-long stays to executives visiting from abroad who are seeking good quality short-term accommodation in Ireland. Currently, there is a 14-night minimum that one must have to be able to continue providing accommodation described as a short-term let. I gather that this legislation is setting out to increase that to a 21-night minimum. Is that the case? I want to clarify that. Second, are there any concerns that in imposing that 21-night minimum we will make it more difficult, rather than easier, for those visiting executives and for their colleagues here in Ireland to be able to facilitate these kind of visits, which are happening, as we are aware, on a regular basis as people move in and out of those big multinational entities? Those are my initial observations. We need to tread carefully here to ensure we do not kill the golden goose.