Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Now we are getting into the substance of the Bill there are a variety of sections I have technical questions about. I may choose to table amendments on these sections on Report Stage depending on the answers.

What struck me as interesting about this section on short-term letting is there is no change in this from the legislation as passed by former Minister, Eoghan Murphy, and supported by all the Opposition back in 2019. The background to this is there was a growing concern from 2016 about short-term lettings that coincided with Frank McDonald's landmark challenge to An Bord Pleanála that confirmed turning a residential building into a short-term let was a material change of use and required change of use planning permission. The committee conducted extensive hearings at that time. There was a very good, cross-party, collegiate approach and we produced a very good report, which we gave to the then Minister. He accepted the broad parameters of it that within rent pressure zones there should a specific provision to ensure enforcement of the change of use planning requirements. The legislation was drafted. Though we thought it needed to go further, it was pretty unanimously supported by the Oireachtas at the time.

The problem was once the local authorities started to try to enforce the provision that is repeated in this section, it proved to be unenforceable. One of the problems was that while a change of use was required, proving in a court of law as part of planning enforcement that the building had been occupied for the set number of nights prescribed in the definition of "short-term letting" became very difficult because of course documentary evidence could not be got from inside the property. Consequently, the level of enforcement action by the local authorities was very poor. A number of local authorities, among them Dublin City Council, to be fair to it, and Cork City Council, made quite an effort at the start. They wrote to a lot of short-term letting hosts. Dublin City Council initiated some legal action and I think Cork City Council did also. However, the legislation here and the regulations based on them proved simply unenforceable.

I support this provision. I played a small part, along with the committee, in ensuring it became law. This is apart from the register and the work of the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, and her Department because that is a separate matter. I do not understand why the Government would take a provision introduced into legislation in 2019 that has proven just not to work and put it into this Bill. Notwithstanding what may or may not happen with the Minister, Deputy Martin's work, because there is still ongoing engagement with the Commission, why was this not reviewed in light of the real-life challenges the Dublin and Cork city councils had in enforcement through the planning system to see if it could be changed? It makes no sense to take a provision that does not work and insert it in a Bill that is meant to be about fixing, streamlining and improving the planning system.