Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is the sneak preview of the reply I will be getting this evening. I appreciate that.

What I would like to impart through this conversation is that there is no doubt that there is a huge element of displacement in the property market and the availability of long-term lets that are now more lucrative as short-term lets. Again, there is a taxation code issue there. That is from a different Department’s point of view. The Department of Finance will seriously have to wake up and look at why so many people are going to short-term letting. The reason is because the long-term market has become very difficult for people to operate in and it is more lucrative to go to short-term letting. I would be concerned that the only approach from the Government would be to use the stick, in terms of regulation, rather than having a carrot as well. If the intention is to provide more long-term accommodation, this legislation alone is not the only thing that will work. There must be more incentives for people to go long-term rather than trying to tighten things up for people who are engaged in short-term letting.

I emphasise that every part of this country cannot be treated the same way. Even different parts of my constituency of Kerry, for example, cannot all be treated the same way. There are different factors at play and there will have to be close co-operation between the tourism side and the local authorities in relation to various localities and how different applications are treated. For example, in the centre of Killarney or Dingle town, you cannot treat someone the same way as you do out in the middle of rural Glencar, rural Keel or some place such as that.