Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The timeline is that a draft will be published on the publication of the Bill. It will be published alongside the publication of the Bill, as I noted there in the answer. That will be in order that Members of the Oireachtas and stakeholders can have sight of what is envisaged. I think the Senator is asking me to confirm exemptions or the status of exemptions in an answer, which I cannot do.

What I can do is to give a little bit more information from the Department of housing on the context of Airbnbs more broadly. There are about 30,000 Airbnbs in Ireland. Two thirds of those are full properties. The greatest concentrations are in two central Dublin local electoral areas and in Donegal, Mayo, Galway, Clare, Kerry and Cork, all with about 1,000 listings. It is a very significant rural tourism element but as a result, it really dominates the private rental sector in those locations.

The Bill will be accompanied by planning guidelines, aiming to allow for balance between tourism and housing requirements. There will be a greater focus on housing in towns where housing needs and affordability issues are pressing. The data from the Department of housing will show that the same income can be made in as little as seven to 11 days with an Airbnb, as for regular rental market in a month. There is a clear economic rationale for using Airbnb but it does have a major impact in crowding out longer-term rental accommodation. In many cities, for example Barcelona, it seems to be overwhelmingly an urban issue. With the exception of the two Dublin LEAs, that does not seem to be the case in Ireland; it is much more of a rural issue. The balance is slightly skewed, in that there seems to be a different profile in Ireland than in other countries. The data is going to be very important but I am sure the Minister for housing will flesh that out in due course.