Tourist Accommodation
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-16
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Peter Burke (FG), Longford-Westmeath

I know the Deputy has done a lot of work on this matter. In towns with a population of less than 20,000 in areas of the south and west coast where it is not viable to build a hotel and where short-term lets for tourism are needed, we will have a simplified administrative process for providers who have been in operation for more than seven years. We have issued a planning statement which will have a presumption for those operators to be granted planning. It will be a simplified process and there will be a presumption they will be granted planning to ensure they can continue in operation. As Minister, I want to see short-term lets continue in areas where they are needed, such as the west coast and the south. Kerry is a prime example, as are counties Mayo, Leitrim and Longford and rural County Galway. There are areas that need short-term lets to absorb the capacity because there is no hotel accommodation available. We will also bring forward an accommodation strategy this year to try to incentivise the growth of high-quality hotel accommodation as well, which will be another weapon in our armoury.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-16/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:54:50+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-16