Lack of clarity on short-term lets pushing tourism industry 'off the Cliffs of Moher'

Federation chairman Derek Keogh called for an extension to the deadline for short-term lessors to register with Fáilte Ireland.

“We do believe there will be an extension so at least we can see this year’s tourist season out, because it’d be catastrophic nationally if we didn’t do that," he said.

“The analogy I’ve used all the time is, the tourist industry has been herded towards the Cliffs of Moher and we’ve basically been pushed off it. What we’ve been told is, by the time you hit the bottom, we’ll put a safety net in to catch you.”

The laws will also restrict short-term lets in towns with populations of over 20,000 people. Hosts will be permitted to rent out their primary residences for up to 90 days.

Mr Keogh said Government officials had indicated that bookings made before May 20 will be honoured for the rest of 2026, but after that, “nobody knows what’s going to happen”.

He was speaking to TDs and senators at a meeting of the Oireachtas enterprise committee on Wednesday.

James O’Connor, Cork East TD and committee chair, questioned Mr Keogh about the planning process and what burdens this was likely to place on short-term let operators.

Mr Keogh said there were two concerns about planning, including whether it would be a “brand new application”.

“If that’s the case, then it’s bells and whistles and it has to be an A-rated building," said Mr Keogh, claiming that upgrade costs could reach €125,000 "before you can even submit a planning application".

He added: “That’s insane and we all agree that’s insane.”

He said there are also questions surrounding the cost of change-of-use applications, which he believes should be in the range of “a couple of hundred quid”.

“What we’ve been hearing back here, getting quotes anywhere from €7,000 to €20,000, we’ve heard from different county councils.”

Finding 'balance'

Enterprise minister Peter Burke said the changes to short-term letting rules are about finding a "balance".

Mr Burke said he did not believe that changes to the proposed rules would leave towns of between 10,000 and 20,000 people negatively impacted by short-term lettings.

"If we look critically, about 42% of our short-term lets are in our five cities. That's where you're going to get the biggest return for the housing crisis. 

"We're very clear that when you have a situation in our five cities whereby a number of properties — about 12,000 properties — are being let out, about 8% of their capacity per annum. You can't let that continue in a housing crisis.

"So we have demonstrated how we're going to resolve that through implementing our short-term-let register and obviously limiting planning permissions to areas of under 20,000."

Mr Burke added: "We are devising an accommodation strategy. We're going to look at viability. We're going to look at the commercial duration of loans for the hotel sector, working closely with the Hotel Federation, and hopefully build up more capacity in areas like Mayo, like Longford, like Roscommon, that have a lot less mature markets that we're working on growing."