Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I want the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media to report on what stipulations have been made on the Airbnb website regarding the regulations that pertain to level 5 restrictions. This is a very serious issue. Obviously the Covid-19 crisis has afflicted this country for the last 11 months. It is a very significant issue that has had a major impact on many parts of society. We are now in the middle of level 5 restrictions that have meant a complete lockdown of society, including schools and the construction sector. Every part of society has been grossly affected.

On my way here from Cork today I was stopped twice by members of An Garda Síochána, which I view as very positive. I complimented both of them on the courtesy and kindness they showed to me. The big issue in my part of the world is the blatant breaches of the level 5 restrictions. There is a phenomenon of weekend house parties where houses are being rented in scenic parts of rural Ireland and people have drinking parties for two nights. A few weeks ago, the Garda Síochána discovered seven people from seven different households in one house in Kinsale. That is the kind of scenario that is happening in rural Ireland and society.

When I looked up the Airbnb website this morning, I saw that there are over 200 properties available to rent tonight in Cork and thousands of properties available to rent throughout Ireland. Such properties are not for essential workers or people who have to go to work. They are for leisure only. The restrictions that are applied to other operators are not being enforced by the Airbnb website and we have a major issue with the lack of enforcement. The Garda Síochána cannot go door to door and it is unfeasible to think that would be an appropriate way to deal with this. We need real regulation to be put in place so that this job can be done. Unfortunately, such regulation is not there at the moment.

When I contacted my local authority, which is supposed to be the regulator for Airbnb properties inside a rent pressure zone, it informed me that it does not have a complete list of all such properties in the county because such a list has not been furnished to it by Airbnb. This is what we are dealing with. It is totally appalling that we have an unregulated market that flies in the face of what we are all doing in level 5. We need to know exactly what the Government proposes to do about this blatant breach of level 5 restrictions. The general public have done so much in the last few weeks and have worked so hard to bring this virus under control. It is the minority, and only the minority, who breach the restrictions but we need strong regulations to be enforced to ensure the minority do not breach the restrictions.

I need to know the following. What does the Government propose to do about Airbnb?How can the Government control Airbnb, which, at present, appears to be running amok in society?