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

First, companies that do short-term lets like Airbnb make hundreds of millions of euro in profit. That is why places like Barcelona that take this seriously subject them to fines of approximately €600,000 for breaches. The Minister of State thinks a fine of €5,000 is somehow going to cut it but it is not.

On RPZs, I urge the Minister of State to look at this because it needs to be dealt with urgently. Deputy Ó Broin is right that when these rules were first written, it was probably envisaged that we would not have the kind of crisis we have in areas that are not covered by RPZs, so the rules were written in a way that means some of the more rural areas will simply never get in. In those local electoral areas, they do not have enough new rental registrations each quarter that would make them even eligible to be considered for an RPZ. That is why, in terms of RPZs and the lack of any rent regulation, it is totally unfair that they have been excluded from these much-needed measures.

To give one example that was highlighted by “Prime Time” on RTÉ, residents in Tubbercurry have been hit with rent increases of 75% and 80%. How can anyone deal with that sort of increase? Right now, that is putting people at risk of homelessness and making them homeless in some of those areas because of the scale of the increase and the lack of availability of properties to rent, where there is a surplus of former rental properties that are empty most of the year and which were now short-term lets. That urgently needs to be addressed. While I appreciate the Minister of State is not going to do it this evening, I appeal to the Government to look at that.

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