Ms M?ire N? Mhurch?:

I will start with the last question, which was on the reduction in value if a property is designated short-term rental, STR, in the planning. That requirement has only come in in the past ten years. My house was built in the 1960s, it has never had that requirement and I have been in business for a long time, and there are many people who are like that. However, if a property is designated STR, it cannot go into the long-term rental market. If somebody wants to buy it, it will be worth 20% less on the open market, or even less again, because a mortgage cannot be got on it. That is what I mean. It devalues it. You can apply to get it back into the long-term market. However, as was said when a question was asked in the Seanad recently, it is not envisaged that is easy to do.