Mr. Eoghan O'Mara Walsh:

Supply is everything. No more than in housing, supply is very important in tourism. We have an acute tourism accommodation supply crisis. It was the case pre-pandemic and in the past 12 months, the accommodation crisis in tourism has been compounded by the number of Government contracts for humanitarian reasons. The idea of losing a whole raft of short-term tourist lets on top of that is of great concern. The fundamental issue is that this legislation comes from housing and it has this really negative, unintended consequence on tourism. The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and Fáilte Ireland have scrambled quite effectively to try to bring back control. At one stage, the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage wanted to manage the register which is ridiculous. So Fáilte Ireland will manage the register, which is a plus. Fáilte Ireland and the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media has done quite well on that front but the issue is that the legislation is still emanating from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage and that is where the planning guidelines are coming from. That is what we are all deeply concerned about. Nobody at this table has a problem with the register. If a register was set up tomorrow, we would all sign up to it and at least then we would have a clear, transparent view of whether the macro figure is even 30,000 at all. But the issue is that it is still embedded in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, which has not put enough emphasis on tourism needs. There is a balance.