Thousands of short-term holiday lettings on the west coast and elsewhere will require planning permission as a result of emergency laws extending Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs) nationwide by the end of this week.
Under a 2019 law designed to get holiday lettings back into the private rental market, properties rented out for short periods in RPZs are required to have planning permission.
Minister of State Michael Healy-Rae said it is a “big concern” for him that Airbnb-style rentals all over Co Kerry would need planning permission because of one of the Government’s big housing policies.
The Coalition could face a backlash from more of its own senior ministers, some of whom had already raised concerns about the impact regulations on short-term lettings could have on rural tourism.
At the moment, tourism hotspots such as Listowel, Tralee, Dingle and Kenmare in Co Kerry, Belmullet and Ballina in Co Mayo, and Bantry and Skibbereen in Co Cork are not classed as RPZs. As a result of this, short-term holiday lettings do not require planning permission in these places.
A spokeswoman for Minister for Housing James Browne said: “Currently, any time we designate an area as a Rent Pressure Zone, the provisions related to short-term letting automatically apply to that Rent Pressure Zoned area. This will be the case when we apply Rent Pressure Zones nationally.”
Mr Healy-Rae, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, said he was concerned about the impact the changes would have.
“It’s a thing I’m acutely aware of and extremely concerned about,” he said, adding that he was “hoping to work within Government to try and address” it.
The consequence of the law means short-term lets in several ministers’ constituencies are required to apply for planning permission. Among the ministers whose areas stand to be impacted are Mr Browne, Minister for Children Norma Foley, Minister for Social Protection Dara Calleary, Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke and Minister of State Timmy Dooley.
Earlier this year, Ms Foley raised concerns about a separate proposal to ban planning permission for short-term lets in towns with populations of more than 10,000 people. On Tuesday, a spokesman for Ms Foley declined to comment, as did a spokesman for Mayo-based Mr Calleary.
Also on Tuesday, the Cabinet agreed to rush through the emergency legislation extending RPZs to the entire country, with Ministers planning to have the legislation passed through all stages in the Oireachtas and ready to be signed into law by Thursday.
It is understood that some people who lease out short-term holiday lets have already been in touch with TDs to complain about the impact the legislation will have on their businesses and to ask for pre-legislative scrutiny of the Bill.
Mr Brown confirmed there will be no special exemption for students under the new rental regime. He was due to meet Minister for Further and Higher Education James Lawless on Tuesday over his concerns about students and other people who move regularly facing higher rents.
However, that meeting has been deferred until next week. Mr Browne told reporters that special protections for student tenants in the private market would be “unworkable” and “unenforceable”.
Labour’s housing spokesman Conor Sheehan claimed on Tuesday that he had seen “anecdotal” evidence of landlords in areas not yet covered by RPZs trying to increase their rents before the law was passed.
