Rental Sector
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-18
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Christopher O'Sullivan (FF), Cork South-West

The proposal on modular homes or small units in back gardens or on the premises of existing homes will come forward shortly. It is really important. It will be an exemption for a certain size of dwelling to allow young people in particular, who want to start off with a home, to build with an exemption so they do not have to go through the arduous planning process. As a west Cork TD, I completely agree with the Deputy about the challenges young people are facing in getting planning permission to build on their land. They have to go through obstacles and barriers and it causes them frustration and headaches and in many cases they are not successful. That has to change. In the next while, we will bring forward the national planning statement, which I hope will address many of those issues.
I will address another issue that has been topical in recent weeks. The Deputy spoke about the number of vacant homes and properties not in use throughout the year. The whole aim of the short-term letting legislation, which is being brought in and which has been controversial - and I can see why - is to try to bring more property into rental accommodation.
The constituents the Deputy has coming into his office and I have coming into my office are struggling to get rental accommodation because they go onto daft.ie or these rental sites and there is nothing to rent. The whole idea is that we get some of these houses back into the rental market and that will release a pressure valve. The Deputy is from Kerry and I am from west Cork; we rely on tourism and on tourism accommodation. It is important we have these short-term lets available for the tourism sector. There is no doubt about that. Someone recently referenced a figure to me that in the region of 6,000 units were available for short-term lets in the west Cork area. If we could even get about 200 of them back into the rental market, imagine the pressure that would take off? I understand the need for short-term letting. I understand people have been doing this for years and we have to clarify the planning requirements but this provides an opportunity to allow people to rent long term, which is a big issue is places like Kerry and west Cork.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:39+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-18