Fintan Warfield (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I place on record my frustration at reports of an internal Government row between the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Shane Ross, and the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, on proposed regulation of Airbnb and who should take the lead on that issue. This matter has been dealt with. While Senators talk about working together on solutions, members of the Joint Committee on Housing, Planning and Local Government have been working together on this issue. The committee recommended that we regulate short-term lets, of which Airbnb is the biggest source. Airbnb and the Government spent a year developing a memorandum of understanding that the committee said would not work. The memorandum has been in place for a year and legislation on the matter was introduced by Senator Humphreys. We must not drag our heels on regulating Airbnb. According to independent data, 1,000 units in this city would become available and return to rental stock if we regulated short-term lets such as Airbnb.

There are solutions. Dublin City Council suggested there are 4,000 vacant units within the canals of this city, all of which have connections to infrastructure, schools and transport. It appears, however, that we do not need a vacancy tax and there will not be one in the budget. Sinn Féin is offering solutions. We need a vision and we need to have a conversation about a vision not only now, but about how we future-proof the system - it is not just a market, but a system. We need to have a conversation about how, in the future, maybe 30% of that system would be comprised of housing provided by approved housing bodies and social and affordable housing, with 70% being private. That would insulate people from future boom-bust politics.