Irish Examiner view: Councils could clamp down on short-term lets and on dereliction

Crackdown in Killarney could be emulated by other local authorities — and in other areas of planning enforcement too

In an effort to address the accommodation shortage in Killarney, council officials have been clamping down on short-term lets. Stock picture

Kerry County Council’s decision to crack down on short-term letting has provoked an unsurprising backlash from the property owners concerned in the county.

Recent public meetings have heard accounts of planning enforcement officers calling to property owners to advise them to cease letting properties or to face financial penalties, as the authorities seek yet another way to tackle the ongoing accommodation crisis.

The issue is particularly acute in the Killarney region, which is a designated rent pressure zone — 200 property owners have been warned by letter about letting homes to holidaymakers.

As a popular holiday destination for generations of people, this represents a fundamental problem for Killarney, and if the problem exists in Kerry this week then it can only be a matter of time before it surfaces in other tourist areas in the country.

The issue is exacerbated by the lack of accommodation in Killarney due to the numbers of Ukrainian refugees in hotels and self-catering units in the area, showing the unintended consequences when humanitarian obligation intersects with commercial imperatives.

Another unintended consequence may be the precedent set for local authorities in other areas of planning enforcement.

If councils can act with such alacrity when it comes to the issue of short-term letting, then decisive action should surely be possible with the problem of long-term dereliction, for instance. In fact, by addressing both of these matters with dispatch it might be possible to make real progress on the accommodation problem.