Ms Ann-Marie O'Reilly:

Threshold made a submission to the Department of housing earlier in the year regarding the proposal to limit planning in towns with populations of 10,000 or more. Our understanding from having attended a briefing session at the Department is that this is not intended to be a blanket ban on short-term lets in towns with populations of that size; rather, greater consideration will be given to balancing the housing needs of those areas and then that regular planning permission rules, which have existed for many years, will continue to be in place for towns of less than 10,000 people. Overall, we are supportive of that. We have identified a number of towns, for example Wicklow town, which has a population of about 12,000. However, according to existing data, there is one short-term let for every eight long-term rentals in Wicklow town. There is certainly an imbalance in that town. Dungarvan is another town of just over 10,000 where there is one short-term let for approximately every six long-term rentals in that local electoral area, LEA. The difficulty is that this data is based on LEAs. The research was done by the ESRI, whereas the restrictions in regard to the planning in towns will be based on the CSO population and size of towns. At the moment it is quite difficult to compare and understand the data across the board. Ballina is another town with just over 10,000. There is one short-term let for every 11 long-term rentals. Balance certainly needs to be struck in those towns. These are large towns with working populations. People commute from those towns elsewhere. There are possibly students still living at home in those towns and moving elsewhere. Workers come in to work in those towns. A balance certainly needs to be struck.

Overall we see the need for balance between tourism and housing, particularly in those areas that attract more tourists than others. In such places as Dublin city where there is a huge level of tourism, a greater imbalance exists between the offering of tourist accommodation and the offering of long-term housing. We hope that when the planning statement is published it will provide good, clear and balanced guidance to the local authorities and that the local authorities, using their own local knowledge and understanding of their areas, will apply that in a sensible manner.