Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It has been a decade since the issue of unregulated short-term lets in high rental demand areas was raised on the floor of the Dáil. Significant work was done on a cross-party basis in the Oireachtas housing committee in 2018. An all-party report was agreed and we worked with the Minister's predecessor, the former Deputy Eoghan Murphy, on the 2019 regulations. The problem with the regulations is they are now virtually unenforceable.

As I am sure the Minister knows, our party is willing to work with him on the short-term letting and tourism Bill and we agree there needs to be an appropriate response that addresses unregulated short-term lets in rent pressure zones in a way that does not negatively impact tourism product in more rural constituencies. There is still a need, however, to introduce penalties on platforms such as Airbnb and estate agents that are currently facilitating and profiting from widespread breaches of planning law. I am interested to hear more on what the Minister means by penalties on platforms in his response. He might provide a little more detail in that respect.

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