James Geoghegan (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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465. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht when the revised and retitled Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill General Scheme will be published; if he agrees with his Departmental ministerial brief that this Bill will be of particular assistance in planning, introducing and collecting an accommodation levy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7402/25]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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The General Scheme of the Registration of Short Term Tourist Letting Bill was approved by Government and published in December 2022. This Bill provided for the establishment of regulatory controls, including a register for all Short Term Letting (STL) properties.

Following a legally required notification of the General Scheme to the European Commission under the Technical Regulations Information System (TRIS) EU Directive 2015/1535 (that requires EU Member States to notify the Commission of any draft technical regulations concerning products and information society services before they are adopted in national law), a standstill period was imposed by the Commission, until December 2023, as work was underway to agree the Short Term Rental Regulation to enable a unified approach to regulation across the EU.

The EU Short Term Rental (STR) Regulation was adopted on 14 April 2024 and is applicable from 20 May 2026. It deals with data collection and sharing, for the Short Term Letting sector. The General Scheme approved in December 2022 has been revised, to give effect to the provisions of the STR Regulation. The revised and retitled Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill General Scheme now requires to be brought to Government for approval to publish and to proceed with drafting of the Bill.

The introduction of a visitor accommodation levy was proposed in Foundations for the Future, the Report of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare published in September 2022 and, more recently, in Capital City, the report of the Dublin City Taskforce published in October 2024, specifically for Dublin City.

The introduction of such a levy would need careful consideration, given the importance of inbound international tourism to Ireland's economy, regionally and nationally. A visitor accommodation levy would have to take account of issues, such as who would pay; for example, whether its application would be limited to international visitors or would it be extended to all visitors including domestic visitors. The geographic scope of such a measure would also be an issue for consideration. Other issues arising, include the collection mechanism, the collector and the potential administrative impact on paid accommodation providers.