The Government’s policy on short-term lets is ‘wrong and unfair’, Micheal Healy-Rae has argued. 

From May this year, anyone letting out a property in the short-term to holidaymakers must register with Fáilte Ireland. 

The legislation also introduces strict restrictions on new short-term lets in cities and towns with a population of over 10,000 people. 

The aim is to encourage people to rent out the properties to locals who need long-term rental accommodation instead. 

However, many landlords in tourist hotspots have argued their properties are unsuitable for the long-term market and the new rules are too onerous. 

On The Pat Kenny Show, Minister of State for Agriculture Micheal Healy-Rae said his constituents in the tourist sector are being unfairly blamed for the housing crisis. 

 “Those people, in my opinion, they didn't create the housing crisis in Ireland,” the independent TD argued. 

“They had nothing in the world to do with it and they shouldn't be attacked now because they're carrying out a business. 

“Because the people that rent their properties, they spend money in the local pubs, shops, tourists, you know, gift shops, all that sort of thing. 

“And if you take away all that accommodation, where are those people going to stay? And they've built up a reputation, they have repeat business.

“Now, so I have an awful problem with what I call Government policy attacking that.”

Housing on the Dingle peninsula. Picture by: Alamy.com. 

Minister Healy-Rae continued that he has no issue with the restrictions on short-term lets applying in cities like Dublin. 

However, he warned that different rules need to apply in rural areas where the economy has been heavily reliant on tourism. 

The new rules, he argued, amount to the Government “moving the goalposts in the middle of the game”.   

“For anybody in Government to seriously think that you're going to get 10,000 of those people to say, ‘All right, I'm going to give this up now, my short-term let and what I'm going to do is I'm going to rent that out long-term’ - number one, do they realise at all the massive negative effect it would have on the local businesses?” he said. 

“Number two, how hurtful it would be to the people who own the property, because there is a small little fact here about property ownership.

“It's like if you own a farm or if you own a house, you didn't get it for bloody well nothing - you worked hard for it. You borrowed money for it.

“And for politicians to come along then, what I would call, and take the ground out from underneath you by saying, well, you can't carry on with the business that you've been conducting. 

“I think it's wrong, I think it's unfair, I've explained this to Government in the strongest possible terms.”

Seafront houses in County Kerry. Picture by: Alamy.com. 

Housing Minister James Browne has previously said he is aware of the “genuine concerns” of people in the tourism sector. 

However, he has also argued that, “meeting local housing need across Ireland is a critically important consideration and government must use every lever available to assist in providing homes for our people.”

Main image: Michael Healy-Rae. Picture by: Alamy.com.