Seanad Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 18 Jun 2024

It is probably new energy.

I thank the Minister for being here. I always commend members of Cabinet who are here to take Commencement Matters, especially on a Tuesday. I thank the Minister for making the effort to be here; it is really appreciated.

The Minister is more than welcome. It is great to have him in the Chamber. I realise it is a very busy morning and there was a Cabinet meeting. This Commencement matter relates to the increased cost of business, ICOB, scheme, which is a welcome scheme announced in the budget last year. It meant we were going to put €250 million into small business throughout Ireland. It was a significant package and meant that we were going to give rebates of up to €5,000 to the majority of small businesses. It was really welcomed by the business community itself.

I had the pleasure of meeting the majority if not all of the business owners in Bandon, Kinsale, Clonakilty and Skibbereen to go through the applications and inform them how the scheme actually works. It is a simple scheme requiring the submission of a minor application to one's local authority. The payments were to become available towards the end of April or at the start of May at the earliest but, unfortunately, that has not been the story in County Cork. Over 5,000 applications have been made but the majority of them have not been approved yet. My office is inundated by businesses that have been waiting for this money for the past six to eight weeks. There seems to be no real understanding of what the issues are.

Two weeks ago, they got a communication from their local authority asking them to confirm that the classification of their business was correct. This was a simple notification sent out two weeks ago. I have absolutely no idea why it was sent, but it was another delaying tactic from the local authority. There is potentially €25 million held in Cork County Council's account today that has not been paid to small businesses under pressure. I believe the Minister's Department has even paid them a fee to work through the paperwork, so there is potentially more money gone to the local authority regarding this.

The small businesses are absolutely frustrated that this organisation, which hounds them for rates on a continuous basis, will not pay them the grant that is applicable to them. The money from the Minister's Department has gone to the local authority but the small businesses cannot access it. They are now trying to survive in very trying circumstances when it comes to business itself. We need to get clarity regarding where this actual grant is going at the moment. Is the money sitting in a bank account? Has the Department paid the local authority a fund in order that it can work through this process? When will these applicants actually get the funding?

There were over 5,000 applications in County Cork. We are looking at a potential sum of up to €25 million going to these businesses and they are absolutely frustrated that the local authority seems to be the issue when it comes to making the payments. The majority of other local authorities have made the payments. Why is Cork County Council lagging behind? I ask the Minister to give me an update on where we are at the moment. How much has been paid out? What do we need to do? At the moment, it just is not working and, unfortunately, small businesses are really feeling the pain as a result of what Cork County Council has failed to deliver.

I thank Senator Lombard for raising this very important issue and raising awareness of the increased cost of business scheme, which is very important as a mechanism for the Government to assist businesses with the cost of doing business. Supporting SMEs is one of the Government's clear priorities and the increased cost of business grant is a key focus and part of our Government's response. The Government signed off on a package of €257 million for the increased cost of business grant and local authorities, funded through the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, are administering the roll-out of the grant to qualifying businesses on behalf of our Department. The grant is squarely aimed at SMEs. For qualifying businesses with a 2023 commercial rates bill of less than €10,000, the ICOB grant will be paid at a rate of 50% of the business's commercial rate bill for 2023. For qualifying businesses with a 2023 commercial rate bill of between €10,000 and €30,000, the ICOB will be €5,000.

Local authorities wrote to rate-paying businesses with details of how to register for the scheme and businesses then verified their details through an online portal.

We ensured it was as simple a registration system as possible, as we know businesses are busy and their time is very valuable. The process will take less than five minutes. In March, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, working with the Department of Social Protection, published an assessment of the increased costs of the forthcoming changes to working conditions. The analysis notes that businesses operating in the retail and hospitality sectors are among those most affected. Informed by that analysis on 15 May, the Government announced a reopening of the cost-of-business scheme for a further 14 days and launched a second phase of the scheme, with businesses in hospitality and retail sectors receiving a second or double payment. During the reopening, the Department ran a nationwide communications campaign to ensure that businesses were aware of the grant.

As of 10 a.m yesterday, 17 June, there have been a total of 80,577 properties registered, representing 66% of estimated eligible businesses, which includes 5,245 registrations in the reopening period. To date, more than 43,000 SMEs have received payment under the ICAP scheme, amounting to over €90 million. In the case of Cork County Council 1,029 SMEs have received a grant, representing about €2 million worth of payments to those SMEs. Cork County Council is working on processing the remaining 4,901 properties that have registered for the grant.

To answer Senator Lombard's question, I confirm that all local authorities have received 50% of the money in advance. My Department was very clear that we wanted to ensure local authorities have no funding issue, which is very important. Under the service level agreement with my Department, local authorities are being paid for administering the grant. I want to work proactively with local authorities to ensure that this valuable money gets out to businesses as soon as possible.

It is disappointing that Cork County Council is lagging behind the rest of the local authority network. I was in Cork last Thursday and offered to meet with the executive or those administering the grant but, unfortunately, they were unavailable to meet. I asked to meet with the team doing the actual administration, which I think is very important but, unfortunately, they were not available to meet either. I raised my concerns with the CCMA; I know that Moira Murrell the new chief executive took office yesterday and she has assured me of her full co-operation in this area. Unfortunately, and I say this in no arrogant way, Government Ministers have very little time and when going to a constituency, we really need the co-operation of the local authortiy network to work with us. I want to work with local authorities. I have been a Minister with responsibility for local government for two and a half years, right through the Covid period and I know how important it is to get rates, rebates etc. into local government to ensure that they can deliver all their services. My job is to be proactive, to work with local authorities and I hope that in the spirit of that co-operation, in the future we will see Cork County Council willingly working with Government to ensure that this money is paid out to the many businesses and rate payers in their area.

I am absolutely shocked by the figures the Minister has presented. If I am reading them correctly, 1,029 grants have actually been paid, to the value of roughly €2 million and there are potentially 5,000 grants remaining to be paid. If we are dealing with a scenario that they have only paid 1,000 of the potential 6,000 grants and we gave a commitment as a Government that this would be paid by the end of April or start of May, that is absolutely shocking. The accountability here is frightening for me. Small businesses are on their knees. The money is in the bank account. There is potentially €25 million euros waiting at the moment to be paid out. A sum of €2 million has been paid out from the local authority in Cork itself and 90% have been paid out across the country. We have a problem here in how this happened. I am deeply frustrated by this. It is not the Minister's fault because he made the money available, but it is deeply frustrating that the local authority has left the businesses of Cork hanging for the money. It is just not good enough.

What do we do now? If the local authority does not have time to meet the Minister, which is shocking in its own right, we need to do something about how it operates. It has no real sympathy or empathy for the businesses of Cork that need this money and does not seem to be accountable to national Government. The knock-on implications for businesses that I support and represent could result in them going under because of the local authority's inability to process this form.

The knock-on implication is that businesses I support and represent will go under because of our local authority's inability to process this form. It is illogical.

That is my frustration. I need to know how we can make sure these 5,000 applications will be approved because, at the moment, the local authority just does not seem up to the job.

I thank Senator Lombard again for his persistence on this very important issue. He is right that there are fewer than 5,000 businesses awaiting payment. To be very clear and honest, as regards the service level agreement, there was a date of November included in the original agreement I inherited. As we got a new round of ICOB, however, we spoke to all the local authorities and worked with them. Now we see that many of them - over 90%, or indeed 100% - have approved payments, and that is very strong.

In connection with Cork, I spoke to the new chief executive of the council and she has committed to working in a positive manner with the Government to ensure that people are paid. The acting chief executive sent me a text message on the Thursday stating that she was available to have a phone conversation. My view is that we had enough virtual meetings during the Covid pandemic. When I go into a constituency, I want to sit down with the team, talk to them in person and help them, with a view to being proactive. I am here to help and to try to see what we can do as a Government to support Cork County Council get this vital money we have provided into the bank accounts of businesses. I encourage them to get their act together in that regard. I am absolutely willing to help them in that manner. I am here as a former Minister of State with responsibility for local government and someone who knows how the system works, having been first elected a councillor in 2009. I hope and I feel, having brought this to the attention of the CCMA, that the new chief executive will bring the energy into this role and we will see him progress this in the next week. However, we need to see progress in the next week in respect of approvals and get the data every day and payments into the bank accounts. This, together with the 15 points on our SME package, is a strong, robust way to show we as a Government are listening to businesses. I look forward to putting together a very strong budget now for businesses that will have the stamp of our enterprise policy all over its paperwork come October.

I thank the Minister for being here and taking this Commencement matter. Before I speak about the 9% VAT rate, which is being pushed very hard by sectors across the country that are struggling, the hospitality sector in particular, it is first important to acknowledge what his Department and this Government have done. Since we have been in government in 2011, we have always held the Ministry for Enterprise, Trade and Employment within Fine Gael. We have done that because we have always been pro-business and we want to support businesses. Even in recent weeks, the number of measures the Minister and his Department have brought forward to support businesses through the cost-of-living crisis and the cost of business over recent months has been hugely helpful and will continue to be. As discussed, the increased cost of business grant that is being availed of by businesses right across the country, including in my county of Tipperary, is very important. When it was introduced in the budget, it was introduced to be very easy for people to apply for and to be done within the first quarter of 2024, and the local authorities would be able to give out that money very easily. Unfortunately, in Tipperary, only 42% of the businesses that have applied for it have actually got the money. We are trying to give money to those businesses as quickly as we can because we understand the pressures they are under, but for some reason the county council in Tipperary has not given that money to 58% of the businesses that have applied for it. It is crucial that they get it. Would the Minister be able to engage with the county council on that? I do not know if he has already, but perhaps he could continue to engage. There is an acting chief executive there at the moment who would be very happy to engage on this issue, I suspect, but it is important that that money gets to those businesses as quickly as possible.

In the broader scheme of things, and as regards the long-term support the hospitality sector, in particular, needs, we really need to look at the 9% VAT rate and returning to it. Looking at figures at the moment, almost two businesses every day are closing, and one of the main reasons they talk about is the increased costs to them and, in particular, the 50% increase in the VAT rate from 9% to 13.5%. I know we reduced it and it was always going to be temporary, but we recognise as a Government that these businesses are struggling.

During negotiations between the Minister's Department and the Department of Finance, will the Minister ensure that this is a priority for this Government, the Minister's Department and him as Minister? A survey of 212 businesses was done only last week by the Restaurants Association of Ireland and 74% of those surveyed said they expect to close this time next year if the VAT rate of 9% is not reinstated in budget 2025. Some 66% said they would have already closed if it were not for the ongoing campaign for the return to a VAT rate of 9%. To put it in clear figures, Jim Power, a very respected economist, said that the average restaurant closure costs the State €1.36 million. It is a positive for us from a revenue perspective that we try to keep these businesses open as best we can. Having a split VAT rate between food-led businesses and hotels has been done in other EU countries. It would not be unusual. I often say we cannot justify dropping the rate from 13.5% to 9% for hotels, just as we cannot justify having restaurants and food-led businesses at 13.5% at this time. I know the Minister is open and willing to negotiate with the Department of Finance on this to support those businesses in the budget. This is a key request by the Restaurants Association of Ireland, which has been very vocal on the matter, and other organisations. If we want to secure the future of these businesses, which are small and medium sized businesses in rural towns like my home town of Clonmel, Cahir and Cashel, they need support over the next number of years. We need to fight hard for this. As I said at the start, Fine Gael is pro-business in rural areas like mine. This is a key statement we can make in budget 2025.

I thank Senator Ahearn for raising this important matter and for his ongoing work as Fine Gael spokesperson on enterprise, trade and employment in the Seanad and the great work he does in that regard. In introducing his Commencement matter, he spoke about the action the Government has taken, such as the increased cost of business scheme in 2024. He mentioned the figures for County Tipperary. We will work closely with Tipperary County Council and all other local authorities to ensure businesses get this vital funding into their bank accounts. There is a steering committee in the Department which meets regularly to ensure we review the figures daily, liaising with various local authorities which are finding it difficult to administer this fund. We will continue to do that. On other supports, there is the debt warehousing scheme relating to taxation, introduced during the Covid pandemic, which provided significant support to businesses and was enhanced by changes made to interest rates in February this year. There have also been suggestions that the hospitality VAT rate should be reduced in some form either for the entire sector or for food services, as suggested by the Senator. Last week, I attended the hospitality and tourism forum, at which many actors from the business sector representing tourism and hospitality were at the table. There was very good engagement by them with the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin. We heard what they had to say. There is a view that the VAT rate is important to a lot of smaller businesses operating in smaller towns and villages in provincial Ireland.

We will work with the Government to put forward the best business package we can in the current budget. I cannot make any commitment on the floor of the Seanad but it is across government negotiations that take place as we form the budget between the Department of Finance and the Department of public expenditure in respect of the supports and grants we will also ensure. At this time, the package we have put forward for the SME sector includes an agreement to reduce PRSI from 1 October. That improves cash flow for businesses, in effect, not taking more of their hard-earned cash off them and making it easier and more accessible to employ those on minimum wage. In addition, the energy efficiency grants are a big support for cash flow, reducing monthly utility costs, be it through improvements to LED lighting, refrigeration or kitchens - areas that can reduce power bills every month. They are a significant asset.

The SME test will be important in future. Any changes to regulation, statutory instruments or legislation will have to go through a test. In essence, it is about thinking small first.

This is about how this affects the small business in our locality with regard to changes which are considered in Leinster House, albeit by the Government. We must be consistent in terms of seeing how this affects local businesses.

The Department of Finance is working closely with our Department and has identified that the full year cost for reducing the 13.5% hospitality VAT rate to 9% in 2024 is €764 million, with the cost to the food service sector only amounting to €545 million or 71% of the total cost. Bear in mind that we have other services such as hairdressers who are also an important part of the cog in our service industry which we must take note of. We are looking at this as part of one of the policies in the budget which will be discussed and thrashed out by the Government. People, however, should be very much aware that that is under the parameters which will be set out in the summer economic statement. These will provide the guard rails within which the Government will have to stick. Bandwidth is very tight but we will do our best.

I am confident of one thing which is that we will put forward a very robust and strong package for our SMEs in this budget to show the Government is listening, that we are rewarding enterprise as a country and that we are the best country for business to establish, grow, flourish and employ people.

I thank the Minister very much for his response and agree with everything he said. Any time I speak with businesses in Tipperary, the very first thing they say, before they make a request, is that they recognise what this Government has done over the past number of years, particularly during the Covid-19 period, in supporting them and their employees and in keeping them alive. That has been crucial.

However, we do not want to get to a point where we helped them during Covid and kept them alive but being there when they really need us again. I recognise that if we do it for food-led businesses, it will cost over €500 million but, as I said, every business closing is costing us €1.36 million. If two are closing a day, we will quickly arrive at the €500 million it will cost to do this.

Supporting these businesses is the right thing to do. We have done it for a number of years and we can do it again temporarily. This supports businesses in rural areas like my own. It supports employment and has a knock-on effect on the rural economy. It is the main request they are bringing to the table for this budget and while it is a matter for the Minister for Finance to make those financial decisions in the budget, we are very much asking for him to put as much pressure as he can on the Department of Finance to ensure those businesses are supported.

That some 74% of businesses are saying they will close if the 9% VAT rate is not returned is a stark figure. We do not want to get to the point where that number of businesses will be closing right across our country.

I thank Senator Ahearn for putting forward his strongly held views on the VAT rate and its reduction to 9%, and also pointing out that we put approximately €12 billion into our business sector in the two budgets preceding budget 2024. That shows the scale of the Government commitment to our SME sector. Be absolutely assured that I will leave no stone unturned in fighting for the SME sector. I will do all that is available to me through the powers of my office in the budgetary negotiations and I will work very hard to ensure we have a package which is very robust for the SME sector and for the wider business community. This is because I am very much aware our SMEs employ 70% of all the people in our communities and drive so much of this economic activity. They need to be supported and Fine Gael, as a party, is very much committed to rewarding enterprise. This is about those who work five to nine as opposed to nine to five and try to ensure that there is valuable employment right across our communities. We will continue to do that and we will be working hard in the budgetary negotiations.

I thank Senator Ahearn for his efforts, as Seanad spokesperson for enterprise, trade and employment, in bringing these valuable data to our debate. We will work together as we build up to budget 2025.

I ,too, would like to welcome the Minister of State back to the Chamber this afternoon to discuss this topic, which she and I have discussed on a number of occasions. I know it is one she has been working hard on to try to find a resolution to. This relates to the transport charge, which is being levied on some service users who are attending day care services in the community healthcare organisation, CHO, 1, which includes counties Monaghan, Cavan, Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim.

As the Minister of State knows, where a member of a family has a disability, the household incurs costs over and above what would be normal for another household. They may face increased costs for heating, light, medicines and other medical expenses, transport and domestic services, to name but a few. As the Minister of State well knows, in light of the cost of living, these extra charges put additional financial strain on families.

What makes this even more disappointing is that the CHO 1 area - the area to which this matter relates - is the only CHO area in the country that is levying these charges. That is unfair. The charge I am talking about is €4 per day, which works out to €20 per week in transport costs that families have to pay. I have spoken to a number of families that include two or more service users. If a family has two or more service users, this charge works out to almost €2,000 per annum, which is a considerable amount of money in anybody's book. The last thing we want is for families to have to reduce their loved ones' attendance at these daycare services, which are excellent, or to cut out attendance altogether.

When the Minister of State and I discussed this matter previously, she understood the problem right away. She was proactive in setting up a committee, which she chaired herself, with a view to finding a solution. She got all the relevant stakeholders around the table to see if such a solution could be arrived at. I look forward to getting an update today on where the Minister of State's work with a view to finding a resolution to the problem has taken her to date.

As stated, the charge is onerous for families, particularly those who have more than one loved one attending daycare services, which are excellent. The current transport service is also excellent. The last time the Minister of Stake spoke on this matter, she said that she was instrumental in carrying out a pilot in County Leitrim using the Local Link service, which is also fantastic, with a view to seeing how it progressed and possibly broadening it out.

This is an unfair charge being levied on families in the CHO 1 area. It is the only area of the country where it is being levied, which is unfair. From the first day I mentioned this issue to the Minister of State, she has been determined to find a solution so I look forward to her response this afternoon. I hope she will give us an update as to where her work on finding a solution to this problem has taken her.

I thank Senator Gallagher for raising this important matter. Towards the end of this debate, we might go on a journey of my work in the area of transport to date.

The HSE provides specialist disability services, including day services and rehabilitative training, to people with disabilities who require such services. Transport is not considered a core specialist disability service. As such, day services funding does not include transport. However, as part and parcel of my work, I discovered that a minimum of €40 million a year is spent on transport in day services. A variety of transport solutions are pursued in different CHO areas. Where appropriate, travel training is provided to enable public transport to be used, where it can be used. I say that loosely. Other transport solutions include local publicly funded transport such as Local Link services, private bus transport and taxies. Some service providers provide transport where capacity exists. In certain cases, the overall funding for a person's day service may be reduced to provide access to specialist transport. To be honest, that is the last stone in the field. As far as I am concerned, where people are attending day services from 9.30 a.m. or 10 a.m. until 3 p.m., we should not be pulling that back to 2 p.m. in order to ensure that we can make transport work.

CHO 1 works with Local Link to provide a co-ordinated and efficient transport service for all service users going to day services operated or funded by the HSE. The HSE pays 90% of the cost of this day service transport with the remainder funded through passenger fares. The HSE has no remit to provide transport but recognises that services users living in rural areas would not be able to access services without transport supports.

The partnership with transport providers commenced in Sligo and Leitrim in 2012. At the time, day services commenced collecting transport fares within the centre. However, some centres do not collect fares and to ensure equity, all passengers now pay fares with the system applied consistently across all the counties the Senator mentioned.

As this specific transport service is deemed a closed service by the Department of Transport, that is, not open to the general public but for HSE service users only, travel passes are not accepted. Service users who are using a public open Local Link bus route to get to their day services can use the free bus pass. However, the Leitrim model is not in existence in many of the counties across CHO 1 to be quite honest with the Senator. The outcome of the Leitrim model is only coming to its end stages now. It is being reviewed with the hope of having it expanded and rolled out further. At this moment in time, however, the Leitrim model is bespoke to Leitrim.

The charge collected on these closed routes contributes to the overall improvement in service delivery, including an increased number of routes, shorter journey times and improvement in the quality of vehicles used. The HSE service provided is safe and of the highest quality and provides door-to-door transport for people attending the HSE-funded services. It is fully accessible, the best value for money and co-ordinated and managed in a professional manner and it is reviewed continually to ensure shorter passenger journey times.

To be quite honest with the Senator, when I was in Dungloe in County Donegal in the middle of last year, I met with a number of service users who brought this particular issue to my attention. They quite justifiably told me about the inequity of what was being asked of them as service users, particularly Theresa, the main advocate who has since written to me in the last ten days. I am currently working on a model to remove that charge. I am having a feasibility study carried out on the costing of the charge to see exactly what it would cost to remove it. I will come back in on the supplementary response, but it is important for me to say that as I make my journeys around the country, I see that some service providers also have charges, perhaps not across entire CHOs but within their particular service provision. I am trying to uncover that as well.

I thank the Minister of State for her comprehensive response to me this afternoon. She used the word "inequality" with regard to this particular charge and that is exactly what it is. As she outlined, it is unfair that the people of counties Monaghan, Cavan, Donegal, Sligo and Leitrim have to pay this charge when other service users in other parts of the country do not.

I commend the Minister of State on the work she has undertaken in trying to get this charge removed. We are not there yet, but we are quite close. Would the Minister of State dare to put a timeframe on getting that charge removed to give us some indication and give the families something to look forward to with a view to finding a resolution for this problem? I thank her again for the work she has undertaken and the commitment she gave me at the outset that she is determined to bang heads together to try to find a resolution to this.

I was very fortunate to secure an additional €5 million in budget 2024 specifically for transport. Both the Department and I are banging our heads together at the moment. However, I am very clear that there are three elements within all of this, one of which would be to remove the inequality whereby people have to pay to attend a day service. The second element is with regard to upgrading some of the fleet within our service providers in once-off funding. The third part would be to work with the likes of Independent Living Movement Ireland, for instance, Galway Independent Living Movement, which already provides transport on a door-to-door basis and operates seven days a week, which gives people the sense of choice as to when they want to access an accessible vehicle to go to functions that are not part of a day service provision. I am currently working on that. I have the money secured. I am told that every time I wish to do a spending line, I have to go to the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform for permission.

I find that highly frustrating seeing as I secured the funding within the budget, but that is exactly where we are at. My timeline is within the current three months.

I thank and commend Senator Gallagher on raising this important issue and, indeed, I commend the Minister of State. What the Minister of State is doing is like pulling teeth, but incrementally she is making a huge difference right across her portfolio through a common-sense approach and a little bit of cop-on where it really matters. I thank her for her time because we know how busy she is.

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I thank him for taking this matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin. When the Minister of State and I served on the Oireachtas tourism committee, of which he was a very active member prior to his elevation, he will have been quite familiar with the issue I wish to raise, namely our ongoing wait for the short-term letting legislation. Let me be very clear at the outset: I strongly support that legislation. We need to have a registration system involving Fáilte Ireland, and the Government has given money to Fáilte Ireland to set that up. We need to address the problem of those who are effectively gaming the system by converting properties that should be in long-term rental accommodation into short-term rental accommodation.

Let me refer to my specific concerns. We still have not got full clarity on some of the planning regulations in this area that relate to rural tourism. I am thinking about coastal cottages and farm sheds. In many cases, these are self-catering operations, but they have been running for a long number of years. The Minister of State, being from Mayo, will be as familiar as I am in Wexford with many such properties. He will recall that the Oireachtas tourism committee discussed this in much detail right through 2023. When we reported on developing rural tourism in our report in November 2023, we made a very specific recommendation, No. 14:

The Committee recommends that the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media engage with Cabinet colleagues with a view to developing appropriate accommodation strategies for tourism in rural areas that balance the needs of local communities with those of their visitors.

In all our communities, no one is disputing the need to have long-term rental properties available. However, as the Minister of State will know, our current difficulty is that there is no consistency in planning enforcement from local authority to local authority. Certain local authorities are taking a very hardline approach, going after short-term rental properties or holiday cottages that have been in operation for ages and expecting them to meet certain current planning regulations, whereas others are adopting a more pragmatic approach. This is providing great uncertainty within the sector. We have had a long tradition of self-catering cottages and farm tourism, with farmyard sheds being made available for short-term accommodation. At a time when we are facing a tourism accommodation crisis, particularly in rural areas, those players are critical in the market.

We really need to have an update. I appreciate that there was a discussion between the Department of housing and the Department of tourism on the short-term letting legislation and that engagement was required with the European Commission; however, the continuing lack of uncertainty in this area remains a problem. As we understood it, there could be planning exemptions in areas with populations of fewer than 5,000. As we are coming into the summer, I ask that the Government now offer certainty to the vital tourism providers in question and that a pragmatic approach be taken so we can ensure their vital service can continue.

I thank Senator Byrne for raising this important matter. This is an area of particular interest to him. I acknowledge his work and that of the members of the joint Oireachtas committee on tourism on this specific matter.

As a former member of that committee, I know it is important that we get clarity in respect of it.

I am taking this matter on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin. The proposed short-term letting and tourism Bill will provide the statutory basis for the establishment of a register for short-term lets in Ireland and for the implementation of the new EU short-term rental regulation, which was adopted by the EU on 11 April 2024. The Minister intends to bring the revised general scheme of the short-term letting and tourism Bill to Government for approval shortly. She will then proceed with drafting the Bill. The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media is also engaged with the European Commission on the draft legislation under the notification requirements of the technical regulations information system, TRIS, directive. As part of the TRIS process, the general scheme of the short-term letting and tourism Bill, once approved by Government, will be sent to the EU Commission. This will enable the TRIS process to be concluded.

The Government's housing policy, Housing for All, includes the objective of making more efficient use of existing housing. One of the actions to achieve this is the development of a new regulatory control requiring short-term lettings to be registered with Fáilte Ireland, with a view to ensuring that houses are used to best effect in areas of housing need. While the short-term letting tourism Bill is not specifically targeted at reducing the number of short-term let properties in Ireland, it will provide a framework within which planning authorities can identify short-term let properties that are operating without the appropriate planning permission. Planning authorities will then be better able to adjudicate, in the context of local housing need, how applications for change of use planning permission will be dealt with.

The Minister is aware that there are concerns regarding the impact on rural tourism, as outlined by Senator Malcolm Byrne, and local economies of the removal of a significant cohort of short-term let properties from the tourism and other short-term letting markets. The Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media statement of strategy includes the goal of supporting the recovery and economic growth of a competitive tourism sector that is environmentally, economically and socially sustainable.

The critical piece in balancing local housing and tourism needs will be planning guidelines, which are under the development of the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage. The guidelines aim to provide the necessary clarity to the short-term let sector and how planning authorities will implement the planning requirements around short-term let properties. The Department will be publishing those guidelines in alignment with the publication of the short-term letting and tourism Bill. The sectoral concerns about the possible impact on rural tourism will be assessed by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage in the planning guidelines. The introduction of the register will provide an accurate record of all short-term letting stock across the country. Property owners operating in the sector will be allowed a period of six months from the launch of the short-term letting register to check the status of their short-term letting unit and, where required, apply for change of use planning permission from their local authority. Those who avail of the six-month clarification period will receive a valid short-term letting registration number, which will allow them to advertise the property from the launch of the register while the planning status is being clarified.

From a tourism perspective, the proposed short-term letting and tourism Bill will allow Fáilte Ireland, for the first time, to have a full picture of tourism accommodation across the State, significantly enhancing its ability to promote and drive tourism investment.

The Minister looks forward to working with the Senator and the Oireachtas committee to progress the legislation, to ensure the sustainable development of tourism and to contribute to the better use of existing housing for the common good.

I thank the Minister. At least there is agreement between the Departments of tourism and housing over what has to happen. We all want to increase the number of long-term rentals available. The concern is that if measures are introduced, the impact on short-term rentals will not mean that they come into the long-term rental market but instead that we simply lose them from the tourism market.

The Minister of State and I have talked about this before. It is all very nice staying in a coastal cottage in July and August, but that property may not be suitable to stay in in December or January. A critical part of the Minister of State's response, which we have been looking for, is the issue of the planning guidelines and how they are applied by local authorities. At present, we have a variance in approach from local authorities. We want to protect those genuine short-term tourism rental properties. We want to stop those gaming the system. We really need to have clarity with regard to those planning guidelines as soon as possible. I urge the Minister of State to take it back to the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin. The legislation should be published shortly with clear guidelines with regard to planning which are communicated to the local authorities.

I thank Senator Byrne for raising the real importance of self-catering accommodation, bed and breakfast accommodation and the wider short-term tourism letting sector. It is an important element of the Irish tourism ecosystem. We want to see our tourism sector co-existing in a more sustainable way, recognising and complementing the local needs of many communities, both economically and socially. The long-term sustainable growth of tourism requires that an appropriate balance is achieved between the short-term and long-term rental sector. The Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage is responsible for the planning system and is currently examining the planning system requirements can be best implemented in those areas where housing demand pressure is not high but where rural tourism is a strong feature of the local economy. Even in my area, along the Wild Atlantic Way, it is important that we have a sustainable tourism environment and that we are not robbing Peter to pay Paul.

It is hoped that this will be handled in a pragmatic way. We recognise the importance of tourism for this country, particularly in rural areas, while recognising that specific parts of the country have rent pressure zones and that there is a clear need for additional housing supply. I will certainly relay the importance of the Senator's point to the Minister, Deputy Catherine Martin. I echo many representative organisations of self-catering and bed and breakfast accommodation about the important part they play in the overall tourism accommodation ecosystem and that it is vital, where possible, that we recognise what we are trying to do with this registration in a sensible way with the planning authorities.