Short Term Letting & Tourism Bill 2025, may force hard working tourism providers into a stark choice to either break the law, or clog our planning system. Ní Mhurchú calls for planning permission to be decoupled from the new short term letting register.
EU Tourism Taskforce Member, Cynthia Ní Mhurchú MEP, has called on the Department of Housing to provide clarity on what role planning permission for short-term lets will play in the new short-term letting register which starts in just under 8 weeks.
According to Ní Mhurchú, there is panic, confusion and uncertainty in our tourism accommodation sector. She is concerned as the tourist season begins that short term letting hosts remain in the dark as to whether or not, they will be required to demonstrate full planning permission compliance in advance of them having to register on the new Short-term Letting Register coming into force on May 20th of this year.
“Obviously any Planning Application requires legal clarity and time and money to engage a planning expert” She said.
The basis of the new Register is EURegulation (EU) 2024/1028 which was adopted by the European Parliament to establish a harmonised EU-wide system for registering short-term rentals and facilitating data sharing between platforms and public authorities across the European Union. Put simply : each short-term letting property would be being given a unique registration number for platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com
Ní Mhurchú pointed out that this was a transparency measure — full stop.
“The EU Regulation makes no reference to planning permission compliance and does not require proof of planning at the point of registration, as the Regulation was not intended to interfere with member states’ planning laws and rules, under individual state Housing Policy”
The Tourism Taskforce Member, MEP Ní Mhurchú, says that bolting planning permission onto the commencement of this new Register in May is unfair on short-term hosts, who are providing much needed tourism accommodation in parts of rural Ireland not serviced by hotels or traditional B&Bs.
She says the new Register should proceed as an administrative data tool; but that planning enforcement should continue to be a separate legal regime – unrelated to the short-term letting register. Conflating them undermines both.
“I am seriously concerned our highly valued tourism industry will suffer because property owners will simply be prevented from offering their tourism accommodation – or risk breaking the law – pending a grant of planning permission.”
Cynthia Ní Mhurchú said she is speaking daily with short-term let hosts who fear they will be pushed into complex planning applications, incurring significant architectural and / or engineering and compliance costs – not to mention having to cancel current bookings with all the associated costs.
She warned that requiring every short-term let host in the country to seek planning permission at the same time would not only overwhelm an already stretched planning system in the middle of a housing crisis, but would also impose an intolerable financial and administrative burden on ordinary rural tourism providers.
She called for immediate clarity in relation to what the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage plans to do in relation to planning permission for short term lets.
“When this EU regulation was passed, EU lawmakers never intended it to create such difficulties for rural Ireland’s tourism sector. The current situation is largely of our own making. We allowed this bill to linger for too long, creating uncertainty and anxiety among tourism accommodation providers. It is clear to me that planning permission should not be included as part of the short-term letting registration process.”
Ní Mhurchú acknowledged that action is needed on short-term lets disrupting the housing market but cautioned that a network of short-term lets are providing much needed tourism accommodation and bringing jobs and tourism investment into parts of rural Ireland where there are neither hotels nor B&Bs.
She stressed it is about achieving a balance but more importantly communicating clearly and in time with short- term letting hosts about the full extent of the obligations they will face on May 20th this year, and giving them time to ensure they abide by the law, whilst also not shutting their doors to tourists.
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