Mr. Cian ? Lion?in:

The current position is that colleagues in the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage are working on updating the planning guidelines on short-term letting to bring more clarity to this and ensure consistency of approach, which will be important, across local authorities. On planning permission exemption requirements for properties, both in rent pressures zones and not, for us it is important to differentiate between areas where housing need is greatest and areas where tourism need is greatest. We are looking for an update from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on how that planning guidance is progressing. Before the TRIS standstill period was extended, the intention was to have draft guidance available in the next month or two. We will go back to that Department and ask what the progress is and how the extra time will be used to take as strong an account as possible of all the concerns raised by the ISCF and other stakeholders around the country. We will get an update and hopefully there will be an opportunity for the committee to engage with that Department on those planning guidelines.