Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 11 June 2019
975. Deputy Eoin Ó Broin asked the Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government the number of additional staff he has provided to councils to enforce the new short-term letting planning regulations which come into effect on 1 July 2019. [23737/19]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe Planning and Development (Exempted Development) (No.2) Regulations 2019 amend the Planning and Development Regulations 2001, as amended, to provide that development involving a change of use relating to home sharing and limited short-term letting in a principal private residence in a rent pressure zone is exempt from the requirement to obtain planning permission, subject to compliance with specified notification requirements to local planning authorities. The 2019 Regulations will come into effect from 1 July 2019, concurrent with the commencement of the underpinning of the primary legislative provisions in the recently enacted Residential Tenancies (Amendment) Act 2019.
Under the new arrangements, home sharing will continue to be permissible for a person’s principal private residence on an unrestricted basis. In addition, an annual cap of 90 days will apply for the renting out on a short-term basis of a person's entire home where it is their principal private residence, with such short-term lets being restricted to periods of 14 days or less at a time. Where the 90 day threshold is exceeded, change of use planning permission will be required.
Furthermore, where a person owns a property that is not their principal private residence and intends to let it for short-term letting purposes, they will also be required to apply for a change of use planning permission unless the property already has a specific planning permission to be used for tourism or short-term letting purposes. It will be up to each local planning authority to consider such applications, having regard to guidance that will issue from my Department, taking account of housing demand pressures in the area concerned and other relevant factors such as cumulative impacts.
The new arrangements are being introduced through the planning code and each planning authority’s enforcement unit will be responsible for monitoring and enforcing these new requirements. The existing corps of planning authority enforcement officers will be mandated with enforcing the new provisions from 1 July next and will be supplemented by dedicated additional resources. Additional funding will be provided to support planning authority enforcement of the new short-term letting arrangements and my Department is engaging with the relevant planning authorities in this regard.
