Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Yesterday, another committee dealt with the issue of short-term letting. Some years ago, we dealt with new planning regulations on change of use. It was very straightforward and the rules are very clear. A short-term let for a specific period of time in a particular type of building requires a change of use planning application on certain occasions. The problem was that the enforcement regime was never thought through. We have very clear regulations and no meaningful way of enforcing them. Three years later, the Government is trying to put in place a new enforcement regime. I mention this to highlight that greater thought on how we have an enforcement regime that will work in the real world is key. There are many good lessons for this from what has not worked in terrestrial planning.

One of the reasons our building control does not place an obligation on State agencies to enforce compliance is that it would place a liability on the State. Building control legislation, and this is a matter on the record from when it was passing through the Oireachtas many years ago, is very explicit that we could not have compliance ultimately falling back on a State agency because if something went wrong, the State would be on the hook. As taxpayers now know, even when the State is not on the hook, it still has to pay the Bill. There is an argument to say it is not just about having a standard but also stating who is legally mandated to ensure compliance. If something is not legally mandated, it will be left to complicated procedures and our experience on land is that they do not work, even with the best will in the world or the best design intention. This is just an observation.