Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming before the House and sharing his report. I am a member of the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government. Clearly. This is a very complex issue. The Minister is correct in stating that there is a lack of data sets and hard facts on this issue. I presume the committee's recommendations are available online. We made 13 recommendations following a lot of discussion and engagement. We heard from Airbnb and other platforms. We tend to focus on Airbnb, but there are other ways to source short-term letting. One issue is the resourcing of local authorities in terms of carrying out inspections. Any regulations, controls or legislation we may introduce will not work unless enforcement powers and resources are provided to local authorities.

I wish to acknowledge the work of the committee Chair, Deputy Maria Bailey, and thank the committee members, who put a lot of time and work into the recommendations. I also wish to thank the committee secretariat which serviced the committee well.

I wish to raise a few points with the Minister. I take it that he has taken all of the recommendations on board. I refer to the second recommendation, namely that a licensing system be introduced for short-term lettings. That is important. The third recommendation was that casual short-term lettings of up to 90 days in a given year should perhaps be examined, which is related to planning issues. The eighth recommendation was that a review of current planning and development laws and regulations should be carried out to establish whether they are robust enough to prevent abuses of the system. That is important.

The eleventh recommendation was profound, in a way, and strong. It was that the current memorandum of understanding between the Department and Airbnb cease as the committee did not believe it was sufficient or appropriate.Finally, the 13th recommendation is "that adequate resources be provided to local authorities in order for them to undertake a systematic inspection and enforcement regime". That is really important. I am glad the Minister has taken the report on board, or at least that his working group will look at all these issues. Will the Minister share with us when he intends for the working group to complete its work?