Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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583. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the steps a person who has been renting out short-term lets for the past ten years in rural County Kerry should take (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61017/25]

Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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584. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government his views on short-term lets in County Kerry (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [61018/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 583 and 584 together.

The EU Short Term Rental (STR) Regulation was adopted by the EU on 11 April 2024 and is applicable from 20 May 2026. This Regulation lays down harmonised rules on the collection and exchange of data on short term rental services for member states, hosts providing short-term accommodation rental services, and online platforms that offer services to hosts providing short-term accommodation rental services within the EU.

The Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment has drafted the Short Term Letting and Tourism (STLT) Bill General Scheme in full alignment with the STR Regulation. The introduction of the STLT Bill will provide a more effective legal and administrative basis to regulate short term lettings. The proposed STLT Bill will provide the statutory basis for the establishment of a register for short term lets in Ireland and for the implementation of the new EU STR.

From 20 May 2026, all STL hosts offering accommodation for periods up to and including 21 nights will be obliged to register with Fáilte Ireland via a digital system and confirm their compliance with planning requirements. The registration process will take just 5 minutes to complete and will result in a unique registration number being issued for each STL unit registered. This number must be displayed when listing the STL unit on any online platforms.

Holiday homes are properties, which have been purposely designed and constructed and approved as dedicated tourism accommodation complexes sharing communal facilities and would normally be subject to planning conditions in relation to their continued operation, management and maintenance as a commercial development rather than a residential estate.

On 1 July 2019, new planning legislative reforms to regulate the STL sector came into effect. Homes or apartments which already have a specific grant of planning permission for use as holiday accommodation/ short-term tourism type letting are not impacted by the current regulations.

Following the approval received from Government on the 15 April to generally preclude new planning permissions for STLs in large towns and cities my Department is working to give effect to this decision. This involves a review of the current Planning Acts with a view to remove references to Rent Pressure Zones in respect of short-term lets.

To ensure 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, my Department is currently developing a National Planning Statement (NPS) for the STL sector to supplement and support the introduction of the 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.