Kevin Humphreys (Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is probably one of the problems in this regard. If one looks at what has happened in other jurisdictions, online platforms have set out to undermine legislation and regulations and actively advertise property on their platforms and get around the regulations. They have succeeded in getting around the regulations in London and can get around them in Dublin, purely through sponsored ads on the platforms. That was the purpose of the Private Members' legislation I put forward, that is, to impose a level of responsibility on those platforms, which Revenue has done. What one sometimes needs to do is to work co-operatively across Departments. I totally accept that it is not the Minister's Department alone that has a role here, but it concerns the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport and the Revenue Commissioners.

The Minister said he actively reviews new legislation, of which I am aware. There is a need to review very quickly the enforceability of the regulations we are bringing in on short-term letting. The Bill will be undermined if the platforms set out purposely to undermine it, given the difficulty in bringing enforcement actions against those who set out to breach the legislation. I accept what the Minister said but the two amendments would assist him in doing exactly what he wants to do. Last night, while canvassing, I came across a person who had eight properties on Airbnb, and that is not to criticise one platform as many of them do short-term lettings. This person explained that she was on the Airbnb platform and had moved eight long-term residential properties away from family lettings to short-term lettings. She said she would have to sell them back into the market and I told her that was correct and was what the legislation was supposed to. I fully support it in that regard.

These amendments were to assist in the success of the legislation. I ask the Minister and his officials to review the position of platforms that purposely set out to get around the legislation because there is a large amount of money being made in short-term lettings.

Out of curiosity, I put my own property on one of these sites to find out what offer or money it would make. I answered the ad on the site and the site came back to me and said it would give me €5,000 a month for the property and anything above that amount would be its profit margin. This was for a two-bedroom terraced house in Dublin 4. The amount of money and the profit to be made in this area can be seen from this. These sites will set out to undermine the legislation.

I ask the Minister to strengthen his commitment to an early review of enforcement, because planning enforcement officers will, with good intentions, make an effort to enforce the legislation he has outlined. However, I do not believe they are being given the tools to do the job really well. We are asking them to do a tough job. Enforcement will involve visibly seeing the legislation being breached. That will not be possible from a desktop. One would not have to recruit as many planning enforcement staff if the platforms had to maintain a register on the basis that a hefty fine would be imposed if they did not do so. A simple email could be sent to the different platforms to request the information, which the Revenue Commissioners currently do.

I am requesting a whole-of-Government approach involving the Revenue Commissioners, the Minister's Department and the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport. I will not press these amendments if the Minister can give me a stronger guarantee that he will review the enforcement of the legislation.