Bid to ban Airbnb and short-term lets at Dingle gateway overturned

Also, 183 enforcement warning letters were sent to Airbnb operators in Killarney to free up accommodation

An Bord Pleanála overturned the ban on Airbnb and other short-term tourist lettings at the gateway to the Dingle peninsula as "Milltown was not a rent pressure zone". Photo: Valerie O'Sullivan

An attempt by a local authority to prohibit Airbnb and other short-term tourist lettings at the gateway to the Dingle peninsula has been overturned by An Bord Pleanála.

One of the Kerry County Council's planning conditions for the redevelopment of a three-storey vacant building in Milltown was that no part could be used for overnight commercial guest accommodation. A second condition sought to prohibit short-term rental in four of the eight units.

Carnol Developments Ltd, through their agents Hughes Planning and Development Consultants of Merrion Square, appealed the conditions saying the bed and breakfast ban was unwarranted.

In a town where there was very little long-term rental accommodation, the block on short-term letting of some units would make it commercially unviable, the agents also said.

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The board’s inspector agreed with the agents, saying of the short-term letting prohibition that “the basis for this condition is not outlined in the internal reports on file”. The restriction on overnight was for rent pressure zones and Milltown was not a rent pressure zone, senior planning inspector Pauline Fitzpatrick noted.

Article 5 of the Planning and Development Regulations, 2001, as amended, sets out the parameters to be met, including timescale, for short-term letting in rent pressure zones, the inspector said. “Short-term letting in areas outside the designated rent pressure zones are not impacted by the arrangements.

"Milltown is currently not in a rent pressure zone. I would concur with the agent for the applicant that the condition, without sound basis for its attachment or evidence of issues in terms of short-term lettings in the town, is unwarranted. 

"I submit that the exempted development provisions as applicable should apply and I recommend the removal of the condition,” Ms Fitzpatrick said. The board agreed and also removed the council’s condition on not allowing some of the units to be used for long-term rental.

Killarney rent pressures

Elsewhere in Killarney, which has been designated a rent pressure zone, because of the serious shortage of accommodation for long-term rent, some 183 enforcement warning letters were sent to Airbnb operators to free up accommodation. 

However, 87 or under half of the files are still open, and are being pursued, a council meeting was recently told. Just two applications have been made for planning permission to change the use of a dwelling to a holiday home for short-term letting as a result of the investigation.

Meanwhile, a request under Freedom of Information Act has revealed that there are no planning permission statistics on exactly how many short-term lets there are in Killarney.  A total of 49 tourist establishments throughout Kerry are registered with the council in 2021, the response states.