Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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264. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government if he will provide an update on the proposed interim enforcement measures for short-term lettings; if he will provide an update on the proposed licensing system for short-term lettings; and the role, if any, for the RTB in the proposed Bord Fáilte licence. [58788/22]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Action 16.7 of the Housing for All Updated Action Plan commits to the development of "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”. As an interim measure and pending the establishment of the new Fáilte Ireland registration system for the short-term letting sector, provision was included in section 3 of the Planning and Development, Maritime and Valuation Act 2022 (the 2022 Act) aimed at updating and strengthening the pre-existing provisions on short-term letting operated through the planning code.

Under the requirements of EU Directive 2015/1535 on Technical Regulations and Information Society services (the TRIS Directive), Member States are required to notify proposals for technical regulations and rules on goods and services (including information society services such as online platforms) to the EU Commission before they can be brought into effect. This is intended to ensure that there is as much transparency as possible with regard to proposed national initiatives for the establishment of technical regulations with potential impacts on trade, the internal market and the free movement of goods and services.

Further to the TRIS Directive requirements, Ireland notified its proposed interim arrangements for the regulation of the short-term letting sector to the EU Commission on 29 July last following which there was some engagement between the EU Commission and my Department. In the meantime, the Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media has made good progress in the development of its legislative proposals to underpin the proposed Failte Ireland registration system for the short-term letting sector to the extent that at a recent meeting between, the Minister for that Department and Minister O'Brien, it was agreed to proceed with the progression of that legislation with a view to its early enactment and the associated establishment of the Failte Ireland registration system in early 2023.

In light of the foregoing, my Department has withdrawn its notification to the EU Commission of the proposed interim arrangements provided for in the 2022 Act.

The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, in consultation with Fáilte Ireland, is working to finalise a General Scheme of a Bill to underpin this system with a view to seeking Government approval to the publication of the General Scheme in the coming weeks.

While it was initially contemplated that there could be a role for the Residential Tenancies Board in the enforcement of the proposed interim arrangements referred to above, it will not have any role in the proposed Department of Tourism/ Failte Ireland registration system.