Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister of State. I commend him on his work as the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs. He did an exemplary job. I wish him the best of luck in his new post. I thank him for taking this matter on behalf of the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media.

I want to raise the question of the short-term tourist letting register being proposed by the Government. I am a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media, which will hear presentations at a meeting this afternoon, including from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. I was concerned when the proposal was published. We all know there is a problem with the availability of long-term letting in Ireland. There is a view that doing something to tackle short-term lets being available would suddenly make a lot more long-term properties available. The website of the Department, citing Fáilte Ireland, estimates that as a result of the proposed register up to 12,000 properties could come back onto the long-term rental market. This is a particularly dangerous prediction to make and, quite frankly, it is nonsense. There is no way we will see 12,000 properties come onto the long-term rental market as a result of the introduction of the register. What is the basis on which the Department asserted this figure? I get the sense it has been plucked out of the air.

I appreciate that a number of people, particularly in urban areas, are skirting some of the rules. They put up properties on a regular basis for short-term lets. These represent a minority of the properties that are short-term lets. I am concerned about the potential impact of this on tourism, particularly during the summer and particularly in rural and coastal areas, if it is not properly thought out and if there is no consultation with the stakeholders in the sector.

If we think about short-term lets, it is not just those properties that get let out week after week on Airbnb, booking.comand other sites. The majority of lettings on Airbnb are rooms in family homes. They are not available throughout the year. They are often available only during particular periods of the year, in some instances when festivals are on. I am conscious of the Wexford Opera Festival, the Rose of Tralee and the Cork Jazz Festival. To accommodate people under pressure families make rooms available for people who are guests. In other instances, we have business people coming here who may require accommodation for a certain number of weeks while they find permanent accommodation elsewhere.

We have a number of self-catering and holiday cottages. While they may be beautiful in July, the idea of staying in them during a freezing cold January is certainly not appealing. The tourism sector is already under pressure because a lot of accommodation is being used to house displaced persons from Ukraine and other areas. I am worried this has not been properly thought out. It is taking a housing sledgehammer to try to solve an issue. The impact this will have on tourism will cause a problem.

There may now be a requirement on older properties to have their planning permission updated with regard to the planning regulations. This may require applying to a local authority to change the planning permission for older holiday properties. I am concerned about this. I believe it will have a serious impact on the tourism sector. I urge that there be consultation with the sector. I do not believe that adequate assessment has been carried out of the impact on tourism of this proposal.