Thousands of short-term lettings will not be able to operate legally this weekend.

Emergency legislation was approved this week to extend Rent Pressure Zones to the entire country.

Short-term lets such as Airbnb are required to have planning permission in order to operate, depending on how long they are renting out for.

Chief Executive of the Irish Hotels Federation Paul Gallagher told The Anton Savage Show that short-term lets make up about 50% of the 350,000 bed spaces available across the Irish tourism industry each night.

He said that Fáilte Ireland will be tasked to create a register of short-term lettings across the country, who will be given six-months to comply with the legislation.

“I think that's fair,” he said.

“I mean, you can’t have stuff hidden away all the time, it is a disruptor and in quiet times, they interfere with the markets.

“They do have a little bit of an unfair advantage; they don’t really have the same compliance regulations, tax and so on.

“So, I think a fair playing pitch is what we’re all asking for.”

House keys, © PA Archive/PA Images

Chair of the Irish Self-Catering Foundation Derek Keogh said that while his organisation would also be “100% in favour of the register”, he sees an issue in tying it to Rent Pressure Zones.

“I wouldn’t know for exact, but the vast majority of our members would not be compliant with the legislation as it stands as of today,” he said.

“If you take what Paul said there, 50% of the bed spaces in the whole country is short-term rental.

“If you look at the Wild Atlantic Way, if you do a few sums on the back of an envelope, that’s worth seven billion euros to the economy every year.

“If 50% of that is potentially exiting the market, that’s €3.5 billion a year that is going.”

According to Mr Keogh, the current legislation would bring “only a handful” of homes in urban areas back into the property market.

Main image: A man looks at his iPhone which displays the Airbnb logo (Editorial use only).