Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I raise the issue of the Covid restrictions currently in place. They have been very effective in many ways but there are issues we need to have a debate on as soon as possible. I refer, in particular, to the activity seen in my part of the world in the past ten days where houses have been rented at the weekend for the holding of parties. We had a situation in Kinsale, which the Garda Síochána publicised, where seven lads from Cork city came down and rented a house, bought alcohol, were cautioned by the gardaí and sent back to Cork. This phenomenon of renting a property for a weekend either in rural Ireland or a destination that would be considered scenic to get away from Covid issues is something we need to start talking about.

My office has done a good deal of work on the Airbnb website in particular, which is currently in full operation. People can book accommodation wherever they want to go in Ireland and nobody will stand in their way. We contacted the local authority. They have no listing of Airbnb accommodation even though it is their job to licence them. We have a major issue about how Airbnbs have been operating during the Covid level 5 restrictions. I believe we need to do something drastic about that. There is no need for this website to be operation in the current scenario. We should ask for the website to be taken down while we are in level 5. Nobody should be going anywhere in level 5. The activity that took place over the past two weekends has to be seriously examined. It is putting everyone’s life in danger and it is unfair on the gardaí, who have to police every party. It is impossible so the only logical solution we can work towards is to have the order amended so that we can have this website taken down while we are in level 5.