Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House. I agree with Senator Ruane in much of what she has said. Some of the provisions in the planning legislation and, in particular, the exemption about which she spoke were designed for a different era. We now need to bring in amending legislation to deal with this. Senator Swanick referred to 15% of the number of hosts possessing 39% of the entire home listings. This is now big business for some people. The owner of a guest house who has an income of more than €37,000 a year must collect VAT. Given that 15% of the number of hosts own 39% of the entire home listings, what is the VAT position of these people? I am not going after those who have one house and want to get an extra bit of income by providing this service.I am not talking about them but about the people who have turned it into a major business. It is an area to be examined.

Senator Lynn Ruane touched on the next matter, the breach of covenants in leases. I am talking about management agreements in apartment blocks. I am not clear on whether there is compliance with management agreements or covenants in leases or deeds conveying these properties if there are lettings such as this. The position can easily be adjusted in apartment blocks if there is not sufficient wording in documents to prevent something like this from happening. This is where a building is provided for residential use only.

Another matter about which I am concerned is insurance. Is there adequate insurance provision? I have gone through the report, but I have not seen any real reference to the insurance element. For example, if there is an incident - we hope there never will be - will insurance cover be provided if property is damaged or parties are injured? In a recent "RTÉ Investigates" report we saw huge numbers of people occupying properties. If there was to be a major incident in any of these properties, the insurers would argue there had been a breach of regulations or compliance with the conditions of the insurance agreement and they might not pay out. This is something the Department must examine and on which it should engage with insurance companies. It should seek clarification on it.

Senator Lynn Ruane has said she is not satisfied that this is the full detail of the number of properties involved and that there are 5,377 listings for Airbnb. What information do we have that all of the 5,377 listings have notified their insurance companies in that respect? This is very important and we must deal with the matter.

There is also the matter of fire safety. I know that the "RTÉ Investigates" report had a different angle on lettings, but is there adequate provision in all of these premises for fire safety? The television programme also referenced the lack of staff in local authorities to carry out inspections. The Department must take up this issue with each local authority to ensure there is an adequate number of inspections, no matter what the area. We did this in the restaurant and food outlet sector, in which there is strict regulation of inspections, but we do not seem to have the same process in place for the letting of properties. It is important that we change that and have an adequate number of staff in every local authority to carry out inspections in order that the regulations can be complied with in full. We can all speak all day about new regulations, but if we do not have adequate supervision, the system of regulation will be absolutely useless. It is important that that issue be dealt with also.

I thank the Minister for dealing with this issue. I also thank the committee for its extensive work and bringing forward its proposals.