Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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695. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of residential properties currently listed as short-term rentals on platforms (details supplied); and the percentage of these properties that are located in areas designated as RPZ. [46256/25]

Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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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 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.

Fáilte Ireland has estimated that, based on data for July 2025 which has been screen scraped from publicly available STL listings across four major booking platforms, there are c.35,300 STL properties in the State currently being advertised online and up to 64% of these properties are advertised as “entire” houses and apartments. The research points to a 26.5% increase from an estimated 27,900 units listed in August 2022. It is important, in such a fast-growing area, that we have oversight and 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. On 20 June the Government passed the Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2025 which extends Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs) nationwide until 28 February 2026.

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.

Tourism is of significant importance to the Irish economy, providing 227,000 jobs and €6 billion income to our economy in 2024 and I am aware of the genuine concerns regarding the impacts on rural tourism and local economies, of removing a significant cohort of properties from the STL market. 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.

The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment and the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage held stakeholder engagement meetings on 29 April and 30 June respectively. These meetings were held to ensure all stakeholders are aware of the new STL registration requirements in advance of their introduction from 20 May next year and to provide information on the National Planning Statement for Short-term letting.