Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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165. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht if he will report on the work of his Department with regard to ensuring there is sufficient accommodation available to meet the needs of the tourism sector; the total stock; the current displacement rate of stock for other purposes, by county, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15964/25]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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The role of the Department in relation to tourism lies primarily in the area of national tourism policy, and implementation of that policy is a matter for the tourism agencies, Fáilte Ireland and Tourism Ireland.

Fáilte Ireland has developed a capacity and pipeline monitor to track ongoing movement in accommodation capacity. This includes changes in current capacity and the tracking of the pipeline of tourist accommodation in Ireland focusing on planning, construction commencement and opening phases of development. This will allow Fáilte Ireland to pinpoint challenges that exist in terms of the development of tourism accommodation and to measure the impact arising.

The Department has prepared a draft General Scheme for the Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill that will provide the statutory basis for the introduction of a register for all short term lets (STL) in Ireland. This STL register, taken with already-existing Fáilte Ireland accommodation registers, will provide a complete picture of the national stock of tourist accommodation.

The combined insights of the capacity and pipeline monitor and the new STL register will help shape and inform Ireland’s long term accommodation development plans to meet changing consumer demands and trends. In the absence of the register, as of November 2024 the Fáilte Ireland estimate of short-term let bed-stock available nationally was c.145,550 bedspaces. In addition, there are c.233,602 tourism bedspaces registered under Fáilte Ireland's National Quality Assurance Framework. The total stock of such registered bedspaces, by county, is set out below in tabular form.

The humanitarian crisis triggered by the Russian invasion of Ukraine had a pronounced impact on the availability of tourism accommodation in Ireland; at its height, 13% of all Fáilte Ireland-registered stock was taken out of the market, by the State, to provide humanitarian accommodation. Specific counties had up to one third of tourism accommodation stock displaced as a result. Changes in government policy and approach, plus a steady increase in new tourism bed-stock coming into the sector, have significantly improved the position. The most recent analysis (November 2024 data) shows that the displacement rate for Fáilte Ireland registered accommodation is now 7% nationally, with the most affected counties at 18%.

The latest data available is a snapshot taken in November 2024 as set out in a table below. It is planned that a new snapshot of the position in relation to State-contracted beds in Fáilte Ireland registered properties will be taken in May and the analysis of the data will be available shortly afterward.

Further to a commitment made in the Programme for Government, my Department is currently reframing the national tourism policy framework. The new framework will help shape how our tourism industry develops in the period to 2030. Accommodation bed-stock for tourism use will be considered as part of the new Policy Framework and subsequent Action Plans.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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166. To ask the Minister for Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht his proposals to support hospitality in the tourism sector only; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15965/25]