Ms Noelle Casey:

I thank the Deputy for that question. When my now husband and I got engaged around 12 years ago, it was at the height of the recession. The milk price was on the floor. We are dairy farmers so we are a low-density farm as well. We do not have many animals and our land is mixed. We knew we had to diversify for the survival of the farm going forward.

At the time, we went to various information meetings and looked at all the different options for diversification. The one we decided to go ahead with was providing self-catering on part of the farm. My own background is hospitality, so I thought at the time it was a good fit. I have since then built up a business. I have a client in the United States who sends her guests over to me regularly. They stay here locally in Killarney. They visit the tourist attractions, spend money locally, take taxis, go to cafes etc. It is not only my business that is affected by this legislation; it is various tourism providers as well.

That is where we are at the moment. We are devastated at the moment. I am outside Killarney, but it is a rent pressure zone, RPZ. We should remember that if Killarney is not the top tourist town in the country, it is one of the top towns. The fact it is an RPZ now means we do not know whether we are coming or going. We were advised that if we went for planning and were turned down then legally, we would be in a weaker position than if we just decided we were not going to accept these new rules and took our case to the local judge to say we have been doing this business for longer than the seven-year rule and ask whether we can please continue what we are doing for our family. We would also be changing. If we wanted to hand over the house to our family going forward, we would not have the right planning permission. It is very scary at the moment. We are hoping now that the committee has been given the right information and guidance to make the good choices going forward for this legislation.