Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Labour Party on the Short-term Lettings Enforcement Bill 2022. It is very important that we have a proper ventilation of this issue in the Chamber this evening. Nobody is making any overstated claims about the utility of the legislation. It is not a panacea but it certainly is a contribution to what is a very live debate and important issue across our society. The issue of short-term lets is one, as the House will know, that has been ventilated very prominently by my colleague Senator Moynihan, who is the Labour Party housing spokesperson. She has been especially prominent on this issue in recent times. We have called for stronger regulations and tougher enforcement on short-term letting. It is within that context that this Bill will receive our full support.

I note that the Government is not opposing the legislation. That is welcome but as we say repeatedly, probably every Tuesday and Wednesday night in this House and sometimes on a Thursday evening, about the Bills that surface through the lotto, that is not the same as proactively supporting the legislation. We know reforms are on the way, as the Minister of State, Deputy Burke, pointed out. They will be devised by Fáilte Ireland. I hope they will be devised in close co-operation with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Let us see how that evolves over the coming months.

We know that short-term rentals are a scourge for ordinary people seeking an affordable place to live. These are predominantly, but not exclusively, Airbnb listings. Of course, there are other platforms such as Booking.com. They are squeezing renters out and not only do they further limit the already short supply of available dwellings, they also significantly drive up rental costs. That is simply how the market works. The pandemic, as was articulated earlier on, saw a temporary shift of a good few thousand listings from short-let platforms to the home rental market. Combined with a ban on evictions and temporary rent freezes, which the Labour Party believes should be introduced for a period of three years, renters were given something of a respite and relief but that respite was all-too brief. The easing of public health restrictions has seen a return to what might be termed as "business as usual" in the rental market and many rental properties have been put back on the short-term letting market.

We know and debate in this House every day the problems that constituents and citizens throughout the country are experiencing with ever-rising high rates of rent. It is evident throughout the country. There is no doubt that short-term letting is part of the problem. Analysis by my colleague Senator Moynihan, conducted in March this year, further proves this point. It showed that nearly all counties had significantly greater numbers of properties advertised for short-term stays on Airbnb than properties available on Daft.ie. In my county of Louth alone, there were three times as many properties available as short-term lets on the popular holiday accommodation website, Airbnb, than there were advertised on Daft.ie. There were 89 properties on Airbnb, compared to 29 on Daft.ie. I hope we would all agree that it is simply unacceptable in the middle of a housing crisis that in every single county except for Dublin, we have more houses for tourism that we do for rent.

Not only have we seen crowding of residential properties by Airbnb and similar operators, but we have also seen an apparent failure by local authorities to properly enforce existing regulations. That goes to the heart of the proposals from Deputy Ó Broin this evening. The 2019 regulations simply are not working. I believe they were introduced with the best of intentions. Warnings were provided by Deputy Ó Broin's party and my party, including my former colleague, then Senator Kevin Humphreys, that the regulations were not sufficiently tight, but I accept that they were introduced with the best of intentions. There is acknowledgement at the heart of Government that they are simply not working. The Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has put that on record in the media. He may have said the same in this House. It is clear to us all that they are not working and this Bill is a response to that.

Twelve counties did not issue any warning letters last year regarding properties for short-term let that were not on the register, did not receive exemptions or did not have planning permission and 11 did not launch any investigations at all. Louth County Council is continuing its efforts to crack down on illegal short-term lettings and to promote suitable medium- to long-term accommodation. It is one of only 15 councils around the country which have taken action against property owners renting homes to holidaymakers as the housing crisis worsens. It has been relatively proactive in issuing 12 warnings and commencing 84 investigations last year, with, as the Minister will acknowledge, limited personnel available. We know this is just the tip of the iceberg. No local authority across the country can keep pace with the numbers streaming back onto the market, whether they are legal and registered, with planning exemptions and planning permission, or illegal.

I will use the example of Carlingford. It is a beauty spot in County Louth that we are all proud of. It is, rightly, a haven for tourists. A constituent was in touch with me last month and was concerned about the levels of short-term lettings and the unavailability of rental properties. She informed me that there were only two properties to rent in Carlingford. It has been a rent pressure zone since 2019. One house and one apartment were available. There were 45 properties on Airbnb. I looked at the figures for County Louth before I came into the Chamber. While looking at Daft.ie is not scientific and does not provide a comprehensive picture of what is available to rent, it is a reasonable picture of what is available to rent and in Louth, there were 17 rental properties. Not a single property was available in my home town of Drogheda. Some 113 were available on Airbnb for the month of June. That puts this issue in context.

Carlingford urgently needs long-term housing solutions for the people who live there. Their housing needs should not come second to those who are spending a week, a weekend or the summer in what is admittedly a beautiful and welcoming area. We need to be conscious of that. Areas such as Carlingford are home to many hundreds of people. They are places that people value. I get many complaints from residents of the Carlingford area. While existing residents of the Carlingford area welcome the influx of tourists, which is important for the local economy, we always need to be conscious that generations of families have made that area their home and it is not simply a place to which people go on holidays. Looking at the places for rent on Daft.ie compared with Airbnb, one would wonder. That illustrates why we need practical regulation of this area. I mean regulation that will actually work and is balanced. The balance is key.

As I said earlier, many local authorities are swimming against the tide when it comes to the regulation of short-term letting. They are not really sufficiently empowered to do it. We all know the 2019 legislation is not working. This Bill is designed to make it work better and to give the 2019 legislation some teeth, but we all know that planning, enforcement and housing departments across the country are chronically understaffed given the ambitions the Government has for housing, which are unfortunately not being realised. I would appreciate an update from the Minister of State in his concluding remarks, if possible, on what funding has been allocated by his Department to allow local authorities across the country to properly enforce the 2019 regulations and legislation. Will we simply wait for the Fáilte Ireland regulatory regime to be introduced in 2023? The Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, said that is when he expects the Fáilte Ireland regulations to be operational.

I am happy to support this Bill on behalf of the Labour Party. This legislation is an important contribution to the debate. I repeat ad nauseamin this Chamber that if we are to provide supply in a quick fashion, we need to focus on bringing vacant units in our town centres, which are serviced and can be brought back onto the market quickly, back into use. I fear, given the background noise in the media over the last few days, that we are being conditioned not to expect too much from the vacant homes tax that has been long-mooted and which the Labour Party has proposed for a long time.

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