Róisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming in. I would have loved if had the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, come into the House to deal with this issue. It is an ongoing issue because there is a lot of scaremongering and a lot of unknowns around the Airbnb sector.

We have no sight of any exemptions or plans as what is happening with regard to planning permissions or exemptions to planning for Airbnbs. It is a huge bone of contention.

I attended a meeting in Limerick at which hundreds of people were in the room . They have all been trying to supplement their income or make a living and are doing really interesting things around Airbnb. We have three houses in horse transport boxes and resurrected caravans and all kinds of good things coming up, which is great for tourism. These people are left in a kind of no-man's land as to what is happening in respect of planning. Local authorities got no guidance from the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, whose job it is to make sure that we get this right. Of course there are issues around Airbnbs that in some circumstances could be enticed into long-term rentals to help us with the housing situation. I have no problem with that. However, there is a huge problem around ignoring the fact that many Airbnbs will never be suitable to live in on a long-term basis. They have been left in limbo and have received no guidance from the Minister. Local authorities can give no guidance to owners of these kinds of Airbnbs, that is, these creative highly entrepreneurial Airbnb offerings that people have been working hard to create. I do not know where we are going with this, as this has been ongoing for over a year and a half now. The Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin, is responsible for tourism and she is looking at the register of Airbnbs but she would also like to know what is happening here as there is no guidance coming from planning or from the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien.

I would like to give people an answer as to what is happening, as they really are worried and scared about the unknowns. Once we have unknowns, they instil fear and people presume the worst-case scenarios where they are all going to be shut down forever. There are genuine concerns among people and it is important that we look at Airbnb properly and get this right. If there are possibilities around getting short-term rental houses into the long-term market, that is a good thing in terms of helping people find somewhere to live. We need Airbnb for tourism but we also need places for people to live locally, so that local businesses are not struggling with finding employees to work for them. People cannot work for these businesses if they have nowhere to live near them. This has been a huge issue for us around north County Clare because it is such a beautiful part of the country and everybody wants to come and visit. We need to consider having guidance for the people who are worried, because they have been left hanging for a year and a half now and are asking what is happening with exemptions for them under the planning rules. I urge the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, to expedite this whole issue.