Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-29
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Holly Cairns (SD), Cork South-West

Being from west Cork, I absolutely understand the importance of tourism in the area I grew up working in local cafés and restaurants that rely on the influx of tourists in the summer. What those businesses and local schools, post offices and everything else also rely on is locals - people living in the area and workers in the area. This is about getting the balance right. The balance at the moment is not right. In Cork South-West, there are housing estates with almost nobody living in them full-time any more. The amount of short-term lets is out of control.
The Government has been dragging its heels on this legislation for four years. I asked the Taoiseach why but he did not answer that question. Do I recognise the importance of tourism? Absolutely. Does the Taoiseach recognise the importance of people needing a home? In his response previously, he spoke of all of these different measures of housing success. Does he include the number of homeless people? In Cork South-West, people are contacting me. They are being evicted and have nowhere to go. That has to be weighed up against the importance of Airbnbs, too.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-21T01:01:08+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-29