Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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609. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will consider placing an obligation on short-term letting sites to verify change of use planning permissions. [19351/22]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Legislative reforms to regulate the short-term letting sector through the planning code, in areas designated as “rent pressure zones” (RPZs), were introduced under the Planning and Development Act 2000 (Exempted Development) (No. 2) Regulations 2019 which came into effect on 1 July 2019.

Notwithstanding the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, significant work on the implementation and enforcement of the Regulations has been undertaken by planning authorities since they came into effect.

The Government's new housing plan, Housing for All, contains a specific action (Action 20.4) - to “develop new regulatory controls requiring short-term and holiday lets to register with Fáilte Ireland with a view to ensuring that houses are used to best effect in areas of housing need”. Minister O’Brien has engaged with the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media to progress this action, and a number of meetings have been held between officials of the two Departments and with Fáilte Ireland, and further engagement is expected to take place in the near future.

Funding was allocated in Budget 2022 to Fáilte Ireland which has been tasked with the design and implementation of a new short term lettings registration system. The agency is currently recruiting staff to work on this project. The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media is also presently scoping out the legislative provisions that will be required to underpin the new registration system with a view to these provisions being enacted in 2022.

The final details of the operational arrangements in relation to the new registration system - including its linkages to the online short-term letting platforms - are still being worked out. However, an underlying objective of the new system will be to ensure that an adequate level of private rental accommodation can be provided, particularly in urban areas of high housing demand, and that such accommodation is not overly diverted to the short term letting sector at the expense of local people seeking long-term rental accommodation.