Catherine Martin (Dublin Rathdown, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Government’s housing policy, Housing for All, commits to the development of new regulatory controls requiring all short term lettings to register with Fáilte Ireland, with a view to ensuring that housing is used to best effect in areas of housing need. The proposed short-term letting and tourism Bill will provide the statutory basis for the establishment of a short-term lets register, including bed and breakfasts, in Ireland and for the implementation of the EU short-term rental regulation, which was adopted by the EU on 11 April 2024. I hope to bring the revised general scheme for the Bill to Government shortly for approval.

Fáilte Ireland currently maintains tourist accommodation registers, as provided for under the Tourist Traffic Acts, for accommodation types such as hotels and guest houses, but provision is not made for a number of other accommodation types, including bed and breakfasts. At present, registration of bed and breakfast accommodation with Fáilte Ireland is on a voluntary basis only. Bed and breakfasts have played a key role in welcoming visitors from around the world to Ireland for more than 50 years and this accommodation type is a unique part of the Irish tourism offering and an important part of the overall tourism accommodation ecosystem.

Of course, the tourism sector must coexist and develop in a way that recognises and is complementary to the wider needs of local communities, economically and socially. As such, the long-term sustainable growth of tourism requires an appropriate balance between the short and long term rental sectors. The Bill will provide greater transparency around short-term rentals and support the promotion of sustainable tourism. It will provide a framework within which planning authorities can identify such properties that are operating without the appropriate planning permission. Planning authorities will then able to adjudicate, in the context of local housing need, how applications for change of use planning permission might be dealt with.

My Department’s statement of strategy includes the goal of supporting the recovery and economic growth of a competitive tourism sector that is environmentally, economically and socially sustainable. Balancing local housing and tourism needs is a critical challenge and planning guidelines that are under development by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage will be important in this regard. My colleague, the Minister for housing, intends to publish these guidelines in alignment with the publication of the Bill. I know that is the key area of interest and concern for the stakeholders to whom the Deputy referred.

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