Last week’s Cabinet meeting brought two pieces of good news for Ireland’s tourism industry. First up, the Government’s decision to legislatively intervene to lift the Dublin Airport passenger cap, and secondly, Ministers accepted that a more balanced approach to restricting short-term tourism lets was needed. Both are capacity issues – one in the sky in terms of bums on seats, and the other firmly on the ground in terms of heads on pillows.
As much as the Dublin Airport passenger cap has dominated business news cycles, the proposed draconian restrictions applying to short-term lets have been causing tourism leaders equal concern.
Self-catering properties and holiday homes have been a staple of the national tourism product for decades and are particularly important in regional Ireland, where there is an inadequate supply of hotels. In recent times, a false debate has raged between housing needs and tourism requirements. The two are not mutually exclusive.
Part of the problem is that the short-term letting sector in Ireland – as throughout much of Europe – has been unregulated heretofore. This is due to change this May 20th when Fáilte Ireland introduces a register of short-term lets.
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For the first time, we will be able to see the full extent and location of properties used nationally as short-term rentals. Industry leaders have welcomed the register as it will finally bring transparency to a sector that has for too long operated in a grey zone. Booking platforms will only be able to list properties with a Fáilte Ireland registration number, or face stiff fines.
[ The Irish Times view on short-term lets: Government rhetoric rings hollowOpens in new window ]
But the issue of who can and who cannot be on the register remains uncertain. This lack of clarity has been causing tourism chiefs and property owners angst for months.
It is important to acknowledge that this is a not an insignificant sector. Short-term letting is a major supplier of tourism beds throughout Ireland. Fáilte Ireland estimate that there are 151,150 short-term letting bed spaces in the country, which is about 40 per cent of the overall tourism bed stock nationally. There is an acceptance that blocks of Airbnb-style apartments in urban centres should be restricted in an attempt to move them back into the long-term rental market to help ease the housing crisis. But regional Ireland, where tourism is the largest indigenous industry and biggest employer, should be left well-enough alone.
Tourism is one of the few sectors that can provide regional economic balance, but such growth ambitions can evidently only be met if there is an adequate supply of tourism beds
Tourism leaders have long called for a pragmatic and sensible approach to this issue. The lazy narrative that limiting all short-term lets will result in increased housing supply is neither proven nor credible. If limiting all such lets, regional properties that are only ever let out for a few weeks of the year by owners in an attempt to cover overheads would likely sit empty all year round, thereby benefiting neither the housing stock nor the local tourism economy.
Minister for Tourism Peter Burke has set a laudable target of a 7 per cent annual increase in visitor numbers to areas outside Dublin. Tourism is one of the few sectors that can provide regional economic balance, but such growth ambitions can evidently only be met if there is an adequate supply of tourism beds.
The Midlands, which is getting millions of euro in tourism capital development, is a prime example. Take Longford, where Fáilte Ireland records that there are just 320 hotel bed spaces in the whole county. By definition, this puts a sharp handbrake on tourism growth potential, but thankfully estimates point to an additional 450 short-term let bed spaces to call on – all will be needed if the Midlands wants to see a tourism bounce in the coming years.
The Cabinet meeting last week raised the town population threshold for short-term letting to 20,000, so that short-term lets in towns with populations below this level can continue to operate. This liberated many tourism hotspots such as Killarney from the restriction, and Minister of State Michael Healy-Rae was quick out of the traps to claim credit. His work isn’t done yet, however.
Current proposals require all properties on the short-term letting register – whether they be in areas above or below the 20,000 population threshold – to have appropriate planning permission. This is despite there being no relevant planning guidelines from the Department of Housing. Media reports at the end of last week suggested a moratorium of two years to allow properties join the register before becoming planning-compliant. Such a pragmatic approach will be needed.
Also, what about those short-term lets in areas above a population of 20,000? Permission to trade is to be “precluded”, according to Minister for Housing James Browne. This means that, as well as the big cities, major visitor hubs such as Kilkenny, Tralee, Ennis and Letterkenny are going to lose thousands of tourism beds. For every €1 a tourist spends on accommodation, €2.50 is spent on downstream businesses such as pubs, restaurants and visitor attractions. One hopes that a way is found to protect bona fide self-catering properties that have been part and parcel of the local tourism economy for years.
So, a mess? Certainly. But we have belatedly started to move in the right direction. Let’s get on with it. Regulate the sector. Set up the register. Give time for planning compliance. And minimise the damage to regional tourism.
Eoghan O’Mara Walsh is chief executive of the Irish Tourism Industry Confederation
