Cian O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this Bill. The Social Democrats will support it. I thank an Teachta Ó Broin for tabling it. The general thrust and approach is to place responsibility on the platforms that advertise short-term lets. They clearly have a key responsibility to ensure that in order to advertise, or accept an advertisement, they should have proof that it is planning compliant. That should have been done several years ago when these regulations were first brought in. We can have a good discussion on Committee Stage about whether the on-the-spot fines need to be broadened and so on. I strongly support this Bill.

I hate to be the one to state the bleeding obvious. Giving the responsibility for this to Fáilte Ireland tells us everything we need to know about how seriously the Government takes this. The job of Fáilte Ireland is nothing to do with housing need or rental supply. It does not monitor that and has no responsibility in that regard. It is not what it does. It has never done that and will never do that. As everyone in the country knows, Fáilte Ireland has key responsibility for promoting and developing tourism in Ireland. It does not have an interest in regulating housing or rental supply. It never will have an interest in that and it will not do that. Its function is not to maximise the supply of rental accommodation, which clearly falls with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. Fáilte Ireland has no remit whatsoever to look after that, which is our primary concern and why this Bill has been tabled. We know, from the fact that the Government has decided to give this serious responsibility for housing and rental supply to an agency with no remit whatsoever in that area, just how seriously the Government takes this. It does not take it seriously at all. This will not work. We know that from how the Government is approaching it. It is farming out an important job to another agency with no remit, particular interest or priority in this area.

One can tell how seriously the Government takes any kind of function by looking at who it gives it to. When the Government is really serious about collecting tax, it gives the function to the Revenue Commissioners. When it is not serious about regulating the building industry, it says that the people to regulate the building industry are the lobby group and representative group for the construction industry. We know, when it comes to tackling short-term lets and how they impact on rental supply, that the Government has looked at who is interested in maximising the number of short-term lets in the country and the accommodation for tourists and given the responsibility to Fáilte Ireland. The Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, has departed. It appears from his comments that the Government intends to bring in a loose licensing system to be operated by Fáilte Ireland for short-term lets.

We certainly have not got any detail in the comments indicating that there would be anything beyond some sort of loose licensing system. If that is not the case, I ask the Minister of State to give us details as to how this would be a robust system. If it is a robust system, why has it been given to an agency that has no remit in this in terms of rental or housing supply? Why on earth is the Government taking that approach to something so important that needs to be dealt with urgently?

Not only does Bord Fáilte have no remit in this area; it is not the body monitoring housing demand around the country and will never be. It is monitoring tourism figures. That is its bottom line, to ensure the maximum number of tourists. That is absolutely at odds with trying to have balance in short-term lets and how they impact on reducing rental supply. Why is the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage relinquishing its responsibility in this and giving it to the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media and Bord Fáilte? Have any of the short-term letting companies been involved in lobbying on or devising what I consider to be at best an incredibly ineffective scheme? It is not going to work. If we were being cynical, we would think it has been designed to fail, potentially at the behest of industry.

On tourism and the effects of short-term lets, not only do they effect people in their ability to rent and people who need a home; their dominance at this point is actually undermining the development of tourism in certain areas. People who want to work in key tourism industries and are looking to rent cannot do so because of the dominance of short-term lets in tourism areas. Even they are now facing pressure and it is causing problems for smaller businesses and employers. It is so unbalanced.

What is happening with short-term lets is symptomatic of a broken housing system. Housing has been turned into a financial commodity and an asset. The people's needs in terms of a home are secondary to where people can make the best return. If we do not regulate short-term lets properly and protect rental supply, of course people are going to go where they can get the best returns. If they can make more money off short-term lets they will move to that. They have been moving to that and out of long-term letting of properties which gives people the ability to have a home and provides much-needed accommodation.

We should be looking at best practice internationally on this. We should be looking at cities like Amsterdam, for example, where a ban on short-term lets was brought in in parts of the old city and canal area in 2020. They also brought in a very strong regulation system with that. Following the overturning of the ban in March 2021, they brought in legislation in November 2021 which provided that anyone buying a home for under €512,000 must be an owner-occupier and must live in the house for four years. They put in strong measures to protect their rental accommodation and their housing stock against this over-speculation and dominance.

I want to respond to some of the comments made by the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, before he departed. He accused Opposition parties of adding fuel to the fire in terms of housing supply. Government policy is very much adding fuel to the fire. The Government is now spending more than €1 billion in subsidies going to investment funds and private landlords that are pushing up rents. That is going through long-term leasing and the HAP and RAS schemes. It is the same Government that is adding fuel to the fire through the favourable tax treatment and tax incentives for investment funds. It is the same Government that has decided in its wisdom to add fuel to the fire by giving €450 million in subsidies to developers and by guaranteeing their profit margins as part of those subsidies while at the same time removing a substantial amount of risk. That risk was part of the justification for the profit margins of those developers.

It is simply not true to say that we have tenancies of indefinite duration. That is absolutely not the case. I find it disturbing if that is really what the Government believes. If it really believes its own spin on this, things are worse than I thought they were. A tenancy of indefinite duration as exists in other countries means that if a tenant is paying rent, is compliant and is not engaged in antisocial behaviour or anything like that, he or she is not subject to eviction. That is not the situation here. There is a long list of reasons that are used to evict people from their homes here. It is very welcome that we now have some cost rental in Ireland. Comparing cost rental in Ireland to other countries or to the Vienna model, though, the rent on a two-bed newly built apartment in the city in Vienna is about €660 per month. We are looking at double that sort of rent in cost rental in Ireland. One of the reasons for that is that a lot of the cost rental has been sourced from private sources. We are building in the private profit margins and high financing risks as well.

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