Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and I am delighted to second this Bill on behalf of the Labour Party group. I commend my colleague, Senator Humphreys, for his long-standing work in this area and for bringing this issue to the attention of the Minister of State and the Government in order to try to do something practical about addressing this real problem that has arisen. We see the extent and the growth of short-term letting and the way in which it undermines the provision of long-term rental properties for families and individuals who need them. This Bill is hugely timely. We, as the Labour Party group, are putting it forward when there is immense public concern about growing homelessness, a growing housing crisis and a stagnation of supply. We see an effective drying-up of building in terms of public, social and affordable housing and, equally, a real diminution of supply in the private rental sector. I am proud to say the Labour Party has always stood for the provision of decent affordable public and social housing. Our Ministers in government who were in charge of housing during a very tough time - Deputy Alan Kelly and Deputy Jan O'Sullivan before him - pushed for more building and to kick-start building programmes.

We know that this will need a really big push and that the Government needs to do more. It is acknowledged by all sides that more needs to be done, for example, to ensure that local authorities have the resources they need to deliver higher levels of building or to ensure that there is more input from, and a greater role for, not-for-profits and housing associations in the housing sector. We see such organisations deliver so much of the social and affordable housing in other jurisdictions. I am thinking of my experience of living in London where housing associations provide a huge amount of housing for the in-between group that is currently so squeezed in Ireland. These are the people who do not have any chance of getting public housing on housing lists but who cannot afford the rising rents we are seeing, particularly in our capital city. It is this group that we need to make provision for and that is where we are seeing a real squeeze.

This is where the issue of short-term letting has become a real problem. As I have said, we see the supply of long-term rentals being greatly diminished, particularly in areas such as Dublin city, Galway and Cork. Like Senator Humphreys, I met recently with Councillor Niall McNelis, a Labour Party councillor in Galway, who is exercised about this. He is right to be because the growth of short-term rentals is a very serious issue in Galway city. I recently had occasion to look for a short-term rental in the Dublin area for my own family. I should say for a somewhat longer-term rental. It is short-term from our point of view - about six months. That is a longer term, however, when we look at what is actually available. In fact there was almost nothing in any way affordable available for a family to rent in the Dublin 8 because all the rentals that would previously have been available are now being rented out for much shorter terms. We are talking about nights or weeks - the sort of model Senator Humphreys is seeking to address.

As he said, this is not just about Airbnb, although I know this Bill is being colloquially referred to as the Airbnb Bill. Many of us are great supporters of Airbnb. I have used its very impressive service in other countries. It offers a really professional model. There are many other platforms also now engaged in short-term letting. It is not about seeking to undermine or criticise them. It is really about trying to ensure a balance and to ensure we have in place an appropriate model of effective regulation, such as we have seen in other jurisdictions and other cities. These include cities like Berlin, which has taken a very strong proactive role in regulating the supply of short-term lettings. In other countries and other jurisdictions we have seen that regulation of short-term letting is well established in order to ensure a balance is in place. We are still operating under a very outdated model of regulation. Effectively we have very little regulation.

Senator Humphreys's Bill, our Labour Party Bill, would give reasonable powers to local authorities to enforce rules and would ensure a much more balanced system of provision of both short-term and long-term letting in order to ensure that a better supply of housing is made available to people who need it and to ensure that we are, at last, doing something about the terrible housing crisis that really is, and should be, such a priority for Government and for all of us as legislators. We are trying to do our bit as Opposition legislators to push the Government on this. I believe the Government is not opposing this Bill on Second Stage. We are very glad about that, but we want to see it pursued and we want to see the Government taking it up and ensuring that it enters into force as legislation in due course. I commend Senator Humphreys and my Labour Party colleagues again for bringing this forward.