Mr. Zak Murtagh:

The question is valid. There has been a bit of a shift in emphasis in respect of the rental platforms. They have been putting forward a view of the proprietors as often being quite niche small-scale operators, maybe in rural areas looking to get extra income or potentially putting a room in their principal residence up for rent and all of that. That is one side of the debate. The reality is that in the major cities in this country, where we have clearly designated rent pressure zones, there are properties being let short-term. We have all been around the houses on this 12,000 figure today and I am not going to comment further on the validity of that. However, it would be disingenuous to suggest there are not properties within the major cities of Ireland, which are designated rent pressure zones, being taken away from the long-term rental market by virtue of the fact they are being continuously used as short-term lets. I accept the fact there may be further tweaks needed to this legislation. As I said, our first recommendation was to focus on home-sharers and that perhaps we need to classify exactly which aspects of the forthcoming legislation specifically apply to them. Let us not lose sight of the issue from our perspective within Threshold that there will still be a significant number of properties returned. We have heard a lot of discussion about the obstacles in place and planning rules being the elephant in the room preventing a return of certain types of accommodation to the long-term rental market. That certainly does not mean a significant proportion of them will not be returned in rent pressure zones.