Ms Niamh McGuire:

If we look across the EU member states, it has been quite a challenge trying to achieve a balance between the short-term letting sector to service the tourist industry and also the needs of the long-term residential market. We will not have the EU regulation in place until next May. Most of the regulations in other EU member states at the moment operate on a basis where they may receive voluntary information from the platforms. Therefore, enforcement of the regulations in other member states has been extremely challenging. They have not been able to achieve the results they have wanted to. This is why the EU regulation was brought about. From next year, there will be specific rules set out whereby platforms will have to provide particular sets of data and report on a monthly basis. That will enable planning authorities and competent authorities nationally, which will be managing the registers, to have information about where the properties are located. At the moment, the greatest challenge in the planning enforcement is identifying where properties are. If the Deputy looks on some of the online platforms, the address is not visible until a person books and pays for the property, so it is not possible to identify where the short-term lettings are located.