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THE MINISTER FOR Housing has said he will bring in additional legislation to target short-term lettings in the coming weeks.
The legislation will further restrict the short-term letting of houses and apartments.
Minister Darragh O’Brien said the amended law will go further than issuing on-the-spot fines, describing the move as “significant”.
He said that while regulations brought in in 2019 are “strong”, he does not believe they are being “adhered to”.
“Very shortly I will have additional legislation that I am bringing forward in this space,” O’Brien told RTÉ today.
“If someone is going on holidays and lets out their home for a couple of weeks or lets out their room, that shouldn’t be an issue, but the idea that we have a situation where we have multiples of short terms lets versus long terms in all our major cities is not a sustainable situation.
“I am concluding work on some quite significant amendments in that space which I will bring in before the summer recess.”
Later this week, the Dáil will debate a Sinn Féin Bill which aims to fine estate agents and platforms like Airbnb who advertise properties without the appropriate planning permission or exemption.
The bill would require estate agents and online platforms to only advertise properties that are compliant with the Planning and Development Act 2000.
It would also allow for the issuing of spot fines to Airbnb and other providers.
However, O’Brien said that the government needs to do more and that a fine “isn’t going to do it”.
“What I will bring forward will be more significant than the opposition who haven’t raised this issue in a couple of years,” he said.
“If we look at what happened through the pandemic, short-term properties came back in the long term rental and that had a positive effect in supply.
“Fundamentally, across the board, changes in short term lets will help but we need more supply.”
The Fianna Fáil minister said he will also bring forward a vacant property tax.
“The data from the local property tax collection is being worked through by Revenue and the Department of Finance and the whole idea of that was finding out why properties were vacant,” he added.
“I think there’s two things we want to make sure, that we support bringing vacant properties back into use and we’re actually being quite successful in certain towns and villages across the country.
“My view is it that we very clearly set out in Housing for All plan that we will bring forward vacant property tax based on the data collection from Revenue.
The minister said it was a “serious” matter that a member of the Oireachtas from outside Dublin was forced to sleep in his car on two separate occasions after he failed to find a hotel to stay.
The Irish Daily Mail reported that TDs and Senators from outside Dublin have been struggling to find accommodation during the week.
O’Brien said he was not aware of the individual case.
“Obviously for TDs coming up from the West, many will stay in hotels or apartments or they’ll share, so I’m not familiar with the with the specifics of the case,” he said.
“A lot of our accommodation right now has been taken up understandably by the initial response to the war in Ukraine and many hotels are contracted in the short term to take our friends from Ukraine and to look after them and to provide them shelter.
“I haven’t had instances like this brought to me before in relation to a TD or otherwise actually seeking hotel accommodation, which is obviously to stay for a night or two.
“People would have stayed in particular hotels for a period of time for months, and then it comes into the summer months and contracts and matches and all those type of things.
“There tends to be a change then where people have to move out of existing accommodation and move into others.
“Obviously that situation is a serious one, but we have a number of serious challenges across the board in housing.”
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Yes 2021 here and 1690 for some up north.
No screw the UK we need to stop letting them dictate how we run things, they will be the ones who look ridiculous enforcing a different timezone for the smaller region on the island.
Endless summer time sounds fantastic!
@Ian McNally: knowing them they’ll choose endless winter.
@Ian McNally: Portugal and Spain gave 2 different time zones, so what? no big deal.
@Ian McNally: Portugal and Spain gave 2 different time zones, so what? no big deal.
@Gus Sheridan: have 2 ……..
Time to get rid of it
@Dick Face: only the planters and the nuts.
@DartMcCart: And what about the other 78 people ?
If EU changes, UK will change too. 80%+ of UK citizens are in favour of getting rid of the biannual time change.
@sean o’dhubhghaill: I’m in favour of the biannual time change
The energy savings argument was always been rather tenuous. Germany introduced the change in 1916 in the probably mistaken belief that it would help reduce energy use, the U.K. followed suit not wanting to let Germany get the upper hand in war preparations and Ireland was instructed to follow suit. We didn’t even get to have an opinion. Farmers were bitterly opposed which is interesting because you often hear that they are the reason the clock changing tradition must be kept.
1916 in Dublin would be 1690 in Belfast and 1776 in Washington DC.
We are part of Europe or not simply!!
@Dizzy: not please
No one cares about Norn Iron leave them to it
@Stevie Doran: Really?! No one at all. Are you certain of that?
We’ll be the same as Belfast for half the year
There is already two time zones in Ireland.
CET and Healy Ray’s Dark ages.
Our politicians are good at manipulating figures, I’m sure they’ll figure something out.
We should change the two economic zones as well
Another chance for those living in Ulcer land a chance to say No.
I’m definitely leaving Ireland if we won’t change with the rest of Europe. The U.K. Will make up their own minds anyway!!!!
Ah the poor government! Won’t bother them too much! It’s the workforce that pays their alarm calls who are going to feel it!
How can these cowards not even make the simplest decisions without someone holding their hand. Daylight savings time is an archaic ritual, the reasons for which have long since stopped being relevant. Who cares if NI keep it, it’s not as if we won’t be able to function. Not only do they want a team of consultants holding one hand but they want the brits holding the other. We’re doomed if this lot ever have to deal with a crisis situation, the country will fall apart around them while they ask consultants and focus groups what would be a popular course of action.
I’ve living in places where this is normal, like Australia and parts of the US. Everyone seems to be missing the bonus here – you can drink until last orders and then hop a taxi and five minutes later drink for another hour until last orders again.
have your say