Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I thank him for taking this matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin. When the Minister of State and I served on the Oireachtas tourism committee, of which he was a very active member prior to his elevation, he will have been quite familiar with the issue I wish to raise, namely our ongoing wait for the short-term letting legislation. Let me be very clear at the outset: I strongly support that legislation. We need to have a registration system involving Fáilte Ireland, and the Government has given money to Fáilte Ireland to set that up. We need to address the problem of those who are effectively gaming the system by converting properties that should be in long-term rental accommodation into short-term rental accommodation.

Let me refer to my specific concerns. We still have not got full clarity on some of the planning regulations in this area that relate to rural tourism. I am thinking about coastal cottages and farm sheds. In many cases, these are self-catering operations, but they have been running for a long number of years. The Minister of State, being from Mayo, will be as familiar as I am in Wexford with many such properties. He will recall that the Oireachtas tourism committee discussed this in much detail right through 2023. When we reported on developing rural tourism in our report in November 2023, we made a very specific recommendation, No. 14:

The Committee recommends that the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media engage with Cabinet colleagues with a view to developing appropriate accommodation strategies for tourism in rural areas that balance the needs of local communities with those of their visitors.

In all our communities, no one is disputing the need to have long-term rental properties available. However, as the Minister of State will know, our current difficulty is that there is no consistency in planning enforcement from local authority to local authority. Certain local authorities are taking a very hardline approach, going after short-term rental properties or holiday cottages that have been in operation for ages and expecting them to meet certain current planning regulations, whereas others are adopting a more pragmatic approach. This is providing great uncertainty within the sector. We have had a long tradition of self-catering cottages and farm tourism, with farmyard sheds being made available for short-term accommodation. At a time when we are facing a tourism accommodation crisis, particularly in rural areas, those players are critical in the market.

We really need to have an update. I appreciate that there was a discussion between the Department of housing and the Department of tourism on the short-term letting legislation and that engagement was required with the European Commission; however, the continuing lack of uncertainty in this area remains a problem. As we understood it, there could be planning exemptions in areas with populations of fewer than 5,000. As we are coming into the summer, I ask that the Government now offer certainty to the vital tourism providers in question and that a pragmatic approach be taken so we can ensure their vital service can continue.