Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I join others in acknowledging Senator Buttimer in the Leader's chair. It is great to see a fellow Corkman there.

If I may talk about something very serious, namely where we are going with our housing issues, we have a real issue when it comes to the Airbnb crisis. Yesterday I was in Kinsale, where I met probably the biggest employer in the town. I met 16 members of staff, all going through issues with rental properties. Either they had got notice to quit or they had been told they would have to leave in the next few weeks or months. There seems to be a campaign in certain locations, particularly scenic coastal locations, to clear out the rental properties and put them on Airbnb. Today there are 150 properties in Kinsale on Airbnb and fewer than two on Daft. It is unsustainable going forward that these coastal towns will be ripped apart because, unfortunately, we will not have the staff for the restaurants, the pubs, the nursing homes or the factories. They will not be able to live locally because our rental property is now being advertised on Airbnb. The knock-on impact on our tourism sector will be counterproductive because we will have hotels with low occupancy rates because visitors are all staying in Airbnb properties.

I have raised this issue on numerous occasions and I am aware that regulations are coming forward in January 2023. I do not think we can wait that long. Those regulations need to be brought forward immediately. Fáilte Ireland and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage need to work in the next few days to bring forward something to this House. Otherwise we will have a summer of Airbnb properties cropping up all over the place, using the rental market to fund that activity, and the knock-on effect on our society will be huge. We should write to the Minister and look for him to come before this House to fast-forward these regulations. Otherwise, towns and villages in scenic locations around Cork and the rest of Ireland will be devastated when it comes to rental property.