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A NUMBER OF tourism reliant associations have raised concerns that the short-term letting bill will be detrimental to rural tourism.
The Short-Term Tourist Letting Bill is aimed at curbing the short-term letting. The bill would introduce a register for short-term lets, which is expected to bring thousands of properties back to the market.
Under the current draft of the bill, properties advertised for short-term letting via online platforms, such as Airbnb, would be obliged to have a valid registration number with Fáilte Ireland.
Fáilte Ireland, a state body, was established to support the development and promotion of tourism within the Republic of Ireland.
Under the bill as it currently stands, any host offering accommodation for periods of up to and including 21 nights will need to be registered. Property owners will have to register via an online portal, input their details and confirm they have planning permission, where applicable.
Before advertising properties, booking platforms will be obliged to only advertise properties with a valid Fáilte Ireland registration number.
In a letter to Taoiseach Simon Harris, representatives for the five associations urged Harris to “tread carefully and ensure that the bill and associated legislation safeguards rural tourism”.
The Government has previously said that it estimates the register will move 10,700 self-catering and short term holiday letting properties to the long term rental market, with the majority in rural Ireland. Counties along the Wild Atlantic Way, including Kerry, Galway and Cork will be most impacted by the loss of tourism accommodation, according to the associations.
The bill is not ready for Cabinet yet, but is expected to be brought before ministers soon.
It is understood the government is aware of concerns within the sectors, and these are being addressed by the Department of Housing, who have responsibility for the planning guidelines for this new measure.
The letter was signed by representatives for Vinters Federation of Ireland, Restaurant Association of Ireland, Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, Ireland’s Association for Adventure Tourism, and Irish Self-Catering Federation.
The group cited estimated figures provided to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport & Media by Fáilte Ireland.
The figures, estimated based on four of the largest online booking systems, show that Kerry will lose 1,858 short-term tourism accommodation units, Galway 1,459 and Cork 1,313. In total, counties along the Wild Atlantic Way will lose over 6,500 properties, more than 60% of the total targeted by Government, according to this data.
The letter states that the associations welcome the introduction of a register for self-catering homes and short-term holiday lettings across the country. They stated that their concerns came from the introduction of the register “without clearly stating who can and cannot be on it”.
In the letter, the representatives said that this risks causing “untold damage” to rural Ireland by closing down self-catering homes and short-term holiday lets in rural communities and tourism-reliant towns across Ireland.
CEO of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation, Eoghan O’Mara Walsh, emphasised the importance of tourism in rural Ireland.
It is vital that holiday homes and short-term tourism rentals are protected in regional Ireland. They form a key part of the industry and bring economic activity to all parts of the Wild Atlantic Way, often where there are no hotels or guesthouses.”
The group of associations asked that there are “clear and sensible” planning guidelines brought in , and a different approach for existing operators.
They further said that separately to hotels, self-catering homes and holiday homes are present in smaller villages and towns that would not previously have benefitted from tourism, had these forms of accommodation not been offered.
The Government has previously said that they intend for the bill to be passed before the Oireachtas summer recess.
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Ireland needs all those short-term lets in rural Ireland for undocumented migrants so tourism can wait for a few years until accommodation issues are resolved..
@Peter McCormack: Elections come and go, but drivel about ‘undocumented migrants’ never ends.
@Peter McCormack: What about the undocumented Irish we were all crying about a few years ago? We are somehow special are we?
@Peter McCormack: Good lad Peter…..like those election results?? Two fingers to you and your ilk from the voters of Ireland!!
@Notty Tee: The undocumented Irish, in America at least, work their asses off. Most are paying taxes. The ones who don’t work usually end up committing crime and eventually get caught and charged and subsequently deported. Very few are living in tents and there are no government handouts for them.
To compare them and their plight to the situation in Ireland is disingenuous. Still I don’t blame the undocumented immigrants here. Their predicament has been created, maintained and profited from, by our shambolic government.
Hotels booked out but not by tourists etc….
So cannot go on a short term break at my own speed so some financial immigrant can get state aid for renting instead .This is what you have going on when we have a Taoiseach who never held down a job and lived off state money all his adult life,and he hands out money because it’s not his own . The actual residents of the state can got to hell with fine gael
Roderic O Gorman has single handedly destroyed the Tourism industry along the Western seaboard, the lifeblood for many people on the Western sea board. An industry that took decades to build its reputation destroyed overnight. All associated spin off businesses like pubs, restaurants, taxis, bus hire, music, tourist attractions are struggling or closing & numbers are way down. Air B & B’s are not the problem, the State commandeering private Hotels to house IPA’s is the problem. Nobody in Govt seems to have a plan or any foresight on how to solve the issues. It’s demoralizing to see what’s going on & sadly nobody seems to care. Tourism was always a mainstay, when the Corporation Tax eventually crashes & disappears, there won’t be any Tourism industry to fall back on as in previous years.
@SV3tN8M4: the most important thing to counter in that post is that the state is not commandeering any property. The rest is as also bollocks, but somewhat more subjective
@SYaxJ2Ts: Commandeering Hotels by paying excessive fees so that the owners ditch Tourism. The Govt has made multi millionaires out of Hotel Owners & Property Speculators in two years, look at the facts published by the Dept of Integration. These Hotels were the lynchpin in a circular economy, with many businesses depending on them, now gone for years to come.
As a Govt online Bot, it’s your role to counter anybody making a contary point, your a programmed pawn operating under a false name, it’s rather sad watching you have to jump on to every post defending the indefensible under your various pseudonyms. If controlling the narrative is the aim, you are probably doing your job you are paid to do, but be warned, silencing debate & voices of ordinary people
feeds division.
@SV3tN8M4: grow up, I’m nobody’s shill. And I repeat, the state is not commandeering property, so you need to be careful with your language, but nothing new there. Hotel rooms are being used to house IPAS applicants and our homeless. So the state obviously need to pay the owners of such hotels and other properties. It’s an absolute mess. I’m curious to know though, given the housing crisis, where would you house these people?
@SYaxJ2Ts: You cater for the amount of people the availability of State owned properties allows for & you prioritize genuine victims of war, simple as that, realism around what we can give people. We did this very successfully in the past, going back to the Vietnamese boat people, who assimilated & integrated into Irish society. Families should be prioritized & we need to be honest to everybody that we cannot house everybody arriving nor provide the extra demand for facilities such as GP’s, Hospitals, specialized Counseling & Medical Intervention & school places. The system is being abused as we saw with the Ukrainian’s, who were arriving having been in secondary countries for years & no where near the war. When the Govt turned off the Welfare tap, the numbers of Ukrainian’s fell.
Wat about the hotels up and down the country that’s “booked up”
A person works hard to have a home, they have the right to rent out short term, removing this won’t bring that spare room into the rental market. Airbnb generally not all year round. Plus it will destroy tourism in many areas especially as who wants to pay for an overpriced hotel that doesn’t include breakfast
@Lilly Lalogue: I don’t think people’s homes are affected , it’s a property that they own , but don’t live in.
My house I’ll do what I like with it. The government can go to hell.
@Shimo F: Naivety, belligerence, both? Either way.. you’ll do what you’re told and as the law directs you to.. don’t pretend otherwise.
works for international investment funds, I would rather they banned them, but it’s a lot easier to whip Irish backs, ‘global’ economy etc
No need for new legislation to sort out this problem – just bring in a new tiered tax system for rental properties, with Airbnb type properties paying the highest rate of 60% tax on rental income
with other rental properties used as long term rentals for residential purposes paying the lowest rate of 30% tax on rentals offering long term leases.
Nearly every other country in the EU have brought in restrictions on Airbnb properties because of a shortage of rental properties in major cities and towns across Europe
Short term lets good for tourism but very bad for the current housing crisis, even ifp leader had his office on airbnb as an apartment for 1k a month under a false name, i think a crackdown on them is a good thing in our current situation
B&Bs and hotels will benefit; all legitimate businesses which have staff they employ and pay tax for. Much better than the Airbnb vulture landlords. Good riddance. The long term rental market will also benefit; families looking for somewhere to rent instead of tourists. Much better for society.
Better late than never
I will do as I please with my 8 properties
It’s not the immigrants that get the money, it’s the landlords.
It costs thousands to keep a person in jail but the prisoners don’t get it.
@Padraig O’Brien: It costs circa €80,000 a year for a regular prisoner and as much as €250,000 for a high security prisoner, approximately – that may have gone up in recent years.
Immigration and all the associated costs, I’ve heard figures of a €3 billion a year or €9 million a day, but that depends on how many people you have under the governments care.
Until the property is for investment, nothing will change. Clearly this system is not working. Government should working on a tax relief for long term rental and short term should be on higher taxes.
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