Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is more than welcome to the Chamber. I want to ask the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy O'Brien, to make a statement on whether he has plans to regulate Airbnb properties to ensure the rental market is not grossly impacted by short-term lettings through Airbnb.

I have raised continuously the lack of realistic regulations on Airbnb. Airbnb plays a role in the marketplace that is distorting the rental market. This morning in Kinsale, a town close to my home, 60 properties are on Airbnb for rent, while three are on daft.ie. It is sucking the lifeblood out of the rental market. We brought in regulations in 2019 that did not address the issue. They stipulated that people could rent a property for 90 days; otherwise, they had to apply to the local authority. Nobody has done that. There has been no active engagement at local authority level to ensure the Airbnb market is regulated.

It is more financially lucrative for people with these properties to rent them out for two or three months per year, and leave them idle for the rest of the time, than to go into the rental market. The three aforementioned properties ondaft.ieinclude a house for €2,700 and an apartment for €1,600. There is no competition. The competition is in the Airbnb market and, because of that, people in towns like Kinsale can never rent. They are dealing with an unregulated entity. Until we regulate it, this cohort of society will be left with no place to live. We have spoken continuously about bringing forward regulations. Bord Fáilte has looked at this but has not brought anything forward. It is March, the Airbnb issue will explode in my part of the world in the next few weeks and we have no regulation brought forward.

I ask the Minister of State to comment on another issue brought to my attention during the week. We have brought forward under the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, a €200 fuel rebate system for people who have an ESB bill. Every commercial Airbnb property is eligible to get that. That is sinful. They do not pay rates but now they get €200 off because they are considered private residents. They are not; they are commercial properties. Not alone are we not regulating them, we are giving them a freebie of €200 for the fun of it.There is a huge issue here. We cannot wait any more for regulation. We need regulation brought forward within the next few weeks or, unfortunately, the people I represent in Kinsale will never get an opportunity to rent a house because everything will be sucked up by Airbnb.