Minister for Housing James Browne has said Airbnb hosts on the west coast will have 90 days per year where they will not need planning permission under a new law.
Mr Browne claimed that many people in parts of Kerry, Clare and Mayo who will come under new short-term letting rules this weekend live in the homes that they are renting out and so will be unaffected by a new law.
Earlier this week The Irish Times revealed that when Rent Pressure Zones (RPZs) become national, popular tourist destinations that had not previously required planning permission for short-term lets now will.
It prompted concern from Minister of State Michael Healy-Rae, as all of Co Kerry will now require planning permission for Airbnb-style accommodation when it did not previously.
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Mr Browne told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland “that’s the current law”.
“Every time a rent pressure zone is extended, the planning requirements kick in for short-term lets,” he said.
Asked about the effect this would have on big tourism areas like Kerry, Clare, Galway and Mayo, Mr Browne said: “a lot of them actually, the families live in the homes”.
“It’s really important for those families to know that if you live in the home and you’re renting out rooms, that [planning permission rule] doesn’t apply,” he said.
“When this law passes, you have 90 days within a calendar year that you can rent your property out, that you don’t need planning permission, so you’re not going to see anybody even considering it for several months.”
He said that he and Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke are bringing in “very strict new laws” for short-term lets that will ban new planning permission for short-term lets in towns with a population of more than 10,000.
“So all of this is going to be resolved over the coming months anyway under the short-term lets plan,” he said.
The Minister was also interviewed on Newstalk Breakfast where he said the new legislation would give more protection to renters.
“Renters are going through an awful lot of pain at the moment – rents are too high and I have to think of not only the renters that are currently renting but those who are home in their box rooms, in their parents’ homes, who need somewhere to rent where there is no housing for them to go out and rent or to buy for that matter. So what we’ve taken is measures to increase that supply level.
“If we continue doing what we’re doing, the pain will continue to grow as well. So I’m very conscious of the pain that everybody’s going through out there who are renting and those who need somewhere to buy as well,” the Minister said.
“So the decisions I’m making this week is about increasing supply, because the only way we’re going to address the cost of houses, the only way we are going to adjust the cost for renting, the way we were going to get homeless numbers down is by increasing that supply,” he told Newstalk Breakfast.
