Tourism Policy
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-21
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Michael Collins (II), Cork South-West

The Minister of State is saying here that people will have to have complied by 20 May 2026. I spent the past seven or eight weeks in the Dáil trying to bring the Minister before us. I mean no disrespect to the Minister of State. He is not the correct Minister to be here because he has nothing to do with tourism. I am not disrespecting the Minister of State. He has to do it. He is busy enough without being dragged into this. It is a disgrace that a Minister for tourism in the course of seven or eight weeks has failed to come before the Dáil to talk about something that affects tens of thousands of people's lives in this country and that has to be signed up to by 20 May. It is outrageous. That is what it is. The Minister of State cannot be carrying the can for it but he is certainly being forced to carry the can.
Is this a tactic the Government is using now and is it another attack on the people of rural Ireland? I have mentioned it several times in the Dáil and the Taoiseach has said to me there will be no problem at all, not to worry at all and that it is all in my head. God almighty, what the Government is going to do is down here in a document. People are being given two years to be planning compliant. That is wipeout in two years. It is a case of kick the can down the road for a few months - that is all it is - instead of understanding the crisis we have at present, which is that the Government is going to wipe out tourism. We got two years out of it and that was a hell of a struggle, but that is not good enough.
I pay tribute to Sarah Cronin. We have held public meetings on this with rooms full of people who are seriously concerned about the little bit of side income they had but the Government never listened and never sat down with them. The Government did not give a damn, basically. I live in an area that totally depends on this income. I spoke to the Taoiseach here about the lady in Courtmacsherry and others who walked out because they could not cope with the pressure being put on them. There would have been no need for that if the Government had sat down and spoken to the people who were running the businesses down through the years and come up with a solution, but not this, which is a can-kicking exercise and then ruin in two years' time. That is basically what is written down here. I do not do Airbnb but the Government knows damn well that if I had to get a planning officer to come out for compliance, it could cost me €100,000, €150,000 or €200,000. The Government is going to wipe out the industry.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-21