Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

306. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if the short term letting and tourism Bill 2025 will pass through the Oireachtas before the recess in July, in light of the passage of the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Bill 2025; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35242/25]

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
Link to this: Individually | In context

310. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the protections or supports for the long-standing practice of family home bed and breakfasts that will be contained with the new short-term let legislation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35362/25]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

I propose to take Questions Nos. 306 and 310 together.

On 15 April, Government approved the General Scheme for the Short Term Letting and Tourism (STLT) Bill. The General Scheme was submitted to the Office of Parliamentary Counsel on 16 April for drafting and this work is currently underway. It is expected that the STLT Bill will go through the full legislative process in the Oireachtas later this year.

This Bill when enacted will provide the statutory basis for the introduction of a register for all Short Term Lettings (STLs) in Ireland, which will be implemented and managed by Fáilte Ireland from 20 May 2026, ensuring compliance with the new EU Short Term Rental Regulation, which was adopted on 11 April 2024. The decision to introduce a STL register has been broadly welcomed by the tourism sector.

The new STL register will be available online and will provide a full picture of the stock of registered tourist accommodation across the state. STL hosts (including self-catering and B&Bs) offering accommodation for periods up to and including 21 nights will be obliged to register with Fáilte Ireland, confirm their compliance with planning requirements and hold a valid registration number that must be displayed when advertising their STL property on online platforms.

The establishment of the register will assist local authorities with the enforcement of planning requirements for Short Term Lets.

Fáilte Ireland has estimated that, based on data for April 2025 which has been screen scraped from publicly available STL listings across four major booking platforms, there are in the region of 33,000 STL properties in the State currently being advertised online and up to approximately 64% of these properties are advertised as “entire” houses and apartments. In the absence of a register there is no way of knowing whether these are principal private residences or otherwise. The research also points to an ongoing annual 10% increase in the size of the STL sector, year on year. It is important that in such a fast-growing area, we have data on where this growth is happening.

The new Housing policy, proposed by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage, James Browne T.D., and approved by Government on 15 April is to generally preclude new planning permissions for STLs in cities and towns with a Census population in excess of 10,000 persons and to enable local authorities have discretion to develop policies for other locations having regard to relevant local criteria to be set out in the planning guidance. Minister Browne will set out the planning guidance for STLs in a National Planning Statement on short term letting and will progress any necessary legislative changes to implement the new Planning requirements. The National Planning Statement will be published in advance of the final enactment of the STLT Bill to provide clarity for the tourism sector.

At present, all STL properties with the exception of your principal private residence (PPR) based in rent pressure zones are required to have planning permission. If you rent out a room in your PPR, planning permission is generally not required, however if you rent out the entire PPR property for more than 90 days planning permission is necessary.

Tourism is of significant importance to the Irish economy, providing 227,000 jobs and €6 billion income to our economy in 2024. Bed and breakfasts have played a key role in welcoming visitors from around the world to Ireland for more than 50 years and this accommodation type is a unique part of the Irish tourism offering and an important part of the overall tourism accommodation ecosystem.

I am aware of the genuine concerns regarding the impacts on rural tourism and local economies, and on traditional bed and breakfasts specifically, of removing a significant cohort of properties from the STL market. However, meeting local housing need across Ireland is a critically important consideration and Government must use every lever available to assist in providing homes for our people, including returning properties to the long-term residential market.

My Department will consider the full implications for the Tourism sector as we await the publication of the National Planning Statement for STL by the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage.