Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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299. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the number of properties that have been acquired that were once listed on a website (details supplied) and other short-term letting websites since July 2020 as reported in an article. [28355/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The “Call for Housing 2020” was launched on 21 July 2020 as a short-term intervention to stimulate interest in social housing delivery, through acquisitions and leasing, from opportunities arising in the property market. The campaign has been run on behalf of my Department by the Housing Agency, in consultation with the local authorities.

Up to 25 May 2021, the total number of properties that were offered to the Housing Agency for sale was 311. 42 of these properties were also put forward for leasing, and a further 138 were offered only under leasing/Rental Accommodation Scheme arrangements.

Of those properties offered for sale, 45 have had bids accepted and have progressed, 30 of which have closed. A number of properties submitted to the Housing Agency are being pursued by local authorities and approved housing bodies independently.

This measure was specifically developed as a temporary intervention in the context of addressing urgent Covid-19 related housing needs. My Department is currently considering the appropriate duration of the measure.

As the identification and selection of properties to be acquired as new social homes is delegated to local authorities, my Department does not record the number of such acquisitions that the 31 authorities undertake that were previously rented privately, but this information may be available from the local authorities themselves.

Finally, my Department publishes comprehensive programme level statistics on social housing delivery activity. This data includes details on the number of social houses acquired and is published on the statistics page of my Department’s website at the following link:

www.gov.ie/en/collection/6060e-overall-social-housing-provision/

Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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300. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the status of the work of the Departmental senior officials' group that was set up to examine further regulation for short-term letting platforms as reported in an article (details supplied). [28356/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Programme for Government - Our Shared Futureincludes the specific action to strengthen the regulatory and enforcement mechanisms with regard to short-term letting, and the ongoing approach in this regard is currently being considered. However, as some elements of potential regulation of the short-term letting market fall outside the remit of my Department, I have been in contact with my colleague the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media on this matter. Meetings have taken place at senior official level between the two Departments, which have also involved the participation of Fáilte Ireland, to explore the possibilities of developing new proposals in relation to the regulation of the short-term letting sector.

Further meetings at official level are scheduled in the coming weeks after which I would hope to submit a Memorandum for Government on this matter in due course.