James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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In 2019, my Department brought in Regulations, (SI 235/2019), to provide for new arrangements for Short Term Lets within Rent Pressure Zones (RPZ). The regulations provided for the following:

• Short term letting is defined as the letting of a house or apartment, or part of a house or apartment, for any period not exceeding 14 days.
• Homesharing (the letting of a room or rooms in a person’s principal private residence) will continue to be permissible on an unrestricted basis and be exempted from the new planning requirements.
• Homesharers will be allowed to sub-let their entire principle private residence (house or apartment) on a short term basis for a cumulative period of 90 days where they are temporarily absent from their home. Where the 90 day threshold is exceeded, change of use planning permission will be required.
• Where a person owns a property in a RPZ which is not their principal private residence and intends to let it for short term letting purposes, s/he will be required to apply for a change of use planning permission unless the property already has a specific planning permission to be used for tourism or short-term letting purposes.

Short term letting in areas outside of the designated RPZ's were not impacted in any way by these regulations. With the nationwide extension of RPZ's, the legislative requirement for Short Term Letting vis a vis planning permission, as I've outlined above, will also extend nationwide.

It is important therefore, that there is a clear view, both at national level and local authority level, as to the overall policy approach to determining planning applications for Short Term Lets.

The Government has recently agreed a policy to generally preclude new planning permissions for Short term letting in cities and towns with a Census population in excess of 10,000 persons, at the most recent Census of Population. It was further agreed that local authorities should have discretion to develop policies for other locations having regard to relevant local criteria to be set out in the guidance. This guidance will be introduced in the form of a National Planning Statement (NPS).

My Department is currently developing a NPS for the Short-Term Letting sector to supplement and support the introduction of the Short-Term Letting and Tourism (STLT) Bill. It will consider a variety of factors, such as existing planning legislation, the long-term housing need in the local authority area, the location of the proposed Short-Term Let and balancing housing need with the potential impact on tourism and economic development.

My Department has met with various stakeholders such as booking platforms and industry representatives and will continue to do so during the development of the NPS for the Short-Term Letting sector. The legislative basis for a NPS is contained within the Planning and Development Act 2024. The relevant provision governing NPS's is due to be commenced later this year.