Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their fascinating and very informative contributions. Mr. Redmond made the valid point that we are flying blind in trying to get accurate data on what benefit this brings to the long-term rental market. In terms of an amalgamation of the suggestions made by Mr. Nolan and Ms Mayer, Mr. Nolan suggested that we decide where we want to end up and chart a successful route to that end, which is a sustainable tourism sector providing the maximum number of houses or apartments to those who seek to rent them as their homes. We need to establish a happy medium and we need to ensure we arrive at that at the end of this process.

Flying blind without data is a really dangerous route to take. Ms Mayer suggested that we put in place the registration process right now. A successful software person could have that up and running in 24 hours. Then we could tell everybody that if they want to enter the market or remain in the market, it is a legal requirement for them to register. That would mean that in six months' time we would have a really valuable dataset, which would inform us as to where in the country we have short-term letting accommodation, what that looks like, the nature of each unit and whether it is possible to re-let it to the long-term sector or whether that is impossible. We can make a well-informed decision if we tread carefully and get the data first. That is how you make well-informed decisions in any capacity, be it within or outside of government. You use the information and move to make a successful attempt at legislating. We are really going down the route of trying to make a fundamental decision about the future of tourism in Ireland without all the necessary information.