Joint Committee on Enterprise Tourism and Employment

Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill

Opening Statement of Booking.com representative Fiona McConnacher, 18/2/2026

Introduction

Chair, Members of the Committee,

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. My name is Fiona MacConnacher and I lead Public Affairs for Ireland and the UK at Booking.com. I appreciate the chance to contribute to your scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Short-Term Letting and Tourism Bill.

Briefly, Booking.com was founded 30 years ago this year in our home city of Amsterdam. We have an established business presence in Ireland, with our Local Partner Services operation based in Dublin 2. Through our local partners we offer a wide range of accommodation options, including the self‑catering properties or short‑term lets that are the subject of this Bill.

Natioanl Tourism Policy

To begin with, I’d like to quote the Tourism Minister’s words from the National Tourism

Policy Statement published in December last year:

“Tourism is one of Ireland’s most vital indigenous industries. It is a cornerstone of regional economies, supporting thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises across the country. It generates significant revenue, sustains employment, and drives development in both urban centres and rural communities…”

Visitors to Ireland, both domestic and international, stay in a variety of accommodation.

In many rural areas with no hotels, self‑catering accommodation is sometimes the only bricks‑and‑mortar tourism accommodation available. In urban centres, a choice of accommodation allows visitors to choose what suits their needs best. This is not a new concept; many Irish families have been providing self‑catering accommodation across the country for generations.

We also recognise the serious challenges presented by the housing crisis in Ireland. It is important to ensure that measures directed at addressing the housing crisis are effective and based on reliable data and impact analysis.

Across Europe, one of the central challenges for governments has been the lack of authoritative data on the number, type and location of short‑term lets. That is precisely why the EU Short-Term Rental Regulation was introduced: to give Member States a sound evidence base to understand how short‑term lets interact with both the long‑term rental market and tourism provision.

Support EU STR Regulation

We strongly support the core aims of the EU Short-Term Rental Regulation which this Bill seeks to implement in Ireland: to improve the flow of reliable, comparable data on self‑catering accommodation across Member States, and to provide a harmonised, transparent framework for registration and data sharing between platforms and competent authorities.

Booking.com is fully committed to this framework and to helping make it a success in Ireland and across the EU. It is imperative that there is clear evidence available on the

Short Term Rental Market and that the EU Regulation should be facilitated to collect the information required to make informed decisions to be taken about Short Term Rentals and the general housing market. Clear and accurate data on short term lets is urgently required to allow for evidence based policy making based on actual data rather than assumptions on short term lets’ impact on housing availability. It has been a feature of the debate on short term lets in Ireland that no reliable information has been produced on the impact of restrictions on short term lets on the housing market, or the tourism market.

In our view, it is also an important opportunity to recognise and support the many Irish families and small businesses who have long provided dedicated tourism accommodation of this nature as well as newer compliant operators taking on or starting such businesses.

Concerns

Our concerns are not with the principle of registration and transparency. Rather, they relate to how the proposed Irish measures will be sequenced and implemented, particularly the link to the planning systems, the timelines for compliance, and the proportionality and practicality of obligations on platforms and small operators within these parameters.

As we understand the proposed approach being advanced by the Department of Housing and the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, the following sequencing is envisaged;

A National Planning Statement on Short Term Lets will be introduced, but has not yet been published yet.
Yet by 20 May 2026, a new registration system must be fully operational, and under Irish Government proposals properties will be required to be planning compliant on that date to be included on the register.

For towns above a certain population threshold, it has been signalled that new planning permissions for short‑term lets are likely to be exceptional, and in smaller towns approval will be at the discretion of local authorities. We understand that the relevant population threshold is now being discussed at a level of 20,000, although this is also not confirmed at time of writing.

The combined effect is that:

Operators still do not know with certainty what planning rules will apply in their area and no guarantee that they will be able to continue operating their business;
Following any planning process (and if successful), they must then secure registration on a new national register, via a new digital system that is not yet available or fully tested, in time for a fixed and, as currently proposed, very tight deadline.

For many small operators, particularly in rural and coastal destinations, this is an almost impossible challenge. There is a serious risk that a significant share of existing stock will fall out of compliance or be forced to cease operating, not because operators are unwilling to comply, but because the system is too complex and the compliance window too short. This raises genuine concerns for both operators and travellers, especially given how close these changes are to the peak summer season in Ireland.

Outcomes

The tourism implications of that outcome would be profound:

Fewer places would be available to stay in already supply‑constrained areas, limiting visitor numbers and spend in local communities;
There would be uncertainty for visitors travelling to Ireland this peak season, with the potential inability to relocate guests who are unable to stay in their originally booked accommodation;

There will be knock‑on impacts for local businesses and employment: from cafés and pubs to visitor attractions and shops.

Crucially, there is no evidence that properties exiting the short‑term lets market will enter the long‑term rental market. A long‑term rental and a short‑term rental are fundamentally different business models. In most cases, the properties in question were never part of the long‑term rental stock to begin with.Our central concern is that Ireland risks taking very far‑reaching decisions on planning and registration before the full benefits of the EU data regime are available. If thousands of short‑term lets are removed from the tourism market in a short period of time, without a clear evidence base that this will materially increase long‑term rental supply, there is a real risk of damaging Irish jobs, communities and the wider tourism industry – this “cornerstone” of the economy.

Sequence of Legislation

For that reason, we would respectfully invite the Committee to consider whether the legislation and its implementation could be sequenced so that, considering the tight parliamentary timetable:

First, the EU STR framework and the register provide reliable data on the extent, nature and location of short‑term lets; and

Then, any more planning‑linked registration conditions are calibrated in light of that evidence, rather than before clear, accurate data has been obtained.

This approach would likely be more consistent with the spirit and objectives of the EU Regulation, and would reduce the risk of unintended consequences for tourism and local economies.

We would therefore urge the Committee to consider recommending:

A realistic transition period, particularly for existing operators, to provide certainty for their businesses and livelihoods, as well as for visitors staying in Ireland, both domestically and internationally; and
An approach which allows the register to provide accurate data before further regulatory interventions are introduced.

Such adjustments would not dilute the policy objectives. On the contrary, they would make it far more likely that compliant hosts remain in the system, that visitors’ bookings can be honoured, and that rural and regional tourism is not unintentionally harmed.

Conclusion

● Booking.com supports the principle of a robust, transparent registration regime for short‑term lets in Ireland, aligned with the EU Short-Term Rental Regulation.

We fully recognise the Government’s aim in trying to address the housing crisis, but we would note that it is equally important to safeguard Ireland’s position as a world‑class tourism destination which, in turn, supports many local economies and local households.

Our central message is that this can best be achieved through evidence‑based, proportionate and carefully sequenced measures that make full use of the new EU data framework, provide realistic pathways to compliance for hosts, and avoid unintended damage to tourism provision and local economies.

We are committed to being a constructive partner to Government, Fáilte Ireland and this Committee. We will continue to work with officials on the technical implementation of the register, on communications to hosts, and on any refinements that may be needed as the Bill progresses but we hope that Government hears the real concerns of businesses of all sizes on the consequences, unintended and otherwise, of the Bill on Irish businesses.

Thank you again for the opportunity to contribute today.

Link to CEO Máire Ní Mhurchú Opening Statement

Link to Chairperson Derek Keogh Statement

Link to Statment of Lisa Argue, G.M DreamIreland.com Marketing Agents, Ireland.

Link to Statment of Tomas o Keeffe, Suir Valley Cottage owner and Dairy Farmer.

Link to Joc Enterprise Tourism and Employment Committee 18/2/2026

Link to Future of Tourism Enterprise Tourism and Employment Committee 28/1/2026

Link to ISCF Press Release 20/2/2026