Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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51. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will outline the accommodation capacity available to the tourism sector; the number of bed nights in 2023, 2024 and to date in 2025, by county, by quarter; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33204/25]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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Tourism is of critical importance to the Irish economy, providing circa. 227,000 jobs and €6 billion in income to our economy in 2024. The Government recognises the central importance of the tourism sector to Ireland's economy and communities and is acutely aware of the importance of local tourism accommodation as a resource for businesses and communities throughout Ireland.

The overall position regarding the available data on accommodation for tourism purposes is complex and multi-layered.

Fáilte Ireland maintains tourist accommodation registers as provided for under the Tourist Traffic Acts and its systems record data on bedspaces rather than bed nights. Fáilte Ireland’s records for 2023 identified 233,578 bedspaces within the National Quality Assurance Framework (NQAF) registered bedstock. From Q3 2024 Fáilte Ireland have maintained quarterly data.

The Q1 2025 bedspace figure (227,323) provided below indicates a decline in recorded NQAF registered bedspaces when compared to Q4 2024 (235,715). This is primarily due to closures related to business repurposing or retirement. As can be seen in the data presented in the tables for Wexford, a large number of bedspaces, associated with a caravan and camping park, exited the tourist market and are now operating as a static site.

The use of tourist accommodation to support the Government’s response to the humanitarian crisis has impacted the sector. However, it is clear that the revised approach adopted by the Government in March 2024 is taking effect and is reducing the reliance by the State on the use of tourism accommodation for humanitarian purposes. Fáilte Ireland's recent analysis of DJHAM data from May 2025 shows that 6% of all registered tourism accommodation stock is under contract to the State, down from 13% in May 2023.

In addition to the NQAF bedspace capacity, Fáilte Ireland estimate that there are circa. 151,150 additional bedspaces for tourism purposes in the Short Term Letting (STL) sector. This data is estimated from scraped data of STL properties advertised across the four largest booking platforms - Airbnb, Booking.com, Tripadvisor and VRBO.

The General Scheme of the Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill approved by Government earlier this year provides for the establishment of regulatory controls, including a register for all STL properties, to be administered by Fáilte Ireland. My Department is currently drafting the Bill. The statutory register of all STL accommodation in the State will, when implemented by Fáilte Ireland in May 2026, provide a full picture of the stock of tourist accommodation in Ireland for the first time.

In terms of scrutinising and ensuring adequate future supply of accommodation for tourism purposes, Fáilte Ireland has developed a capacity and pipeline monitor to track movement in tourism accommodation capacity. This includes measuring 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; to measure the impact arising; and to work with partners and other stakeholders to identify and potentially develop solutions.

The combined insights of the accommodation capacity and pipeline monitor and the STL register will help shape and inform Ireland’s long-term accommodation development plans to meet changing consumer demands and trends.

The Fáilte Ireland Pipeline Analysis as of Q1 2025 identifies 11,550 bedspaces under construction, with planning granted for a further 36,250 bedspaces and planning submitted for a further 7,750 bedspaces.

Further to a commitment made in the Programme for Government, my Department is currently reviewing the national tourism policy framework. The new framework will 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.