Historic Houses of Ireland

OPENING STATEMENT

Irish Historic Houses Association CLG (Registered Charity)
Joint Committee on Enterprise, Tourism and Employment

Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of General Scheme of the Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill
Wednesday, 18 February 2026, 12.30pm
Committee Room 2, Leinster House 2000

Witnesses:
Thomas Emmet, Events and External Relations Officer, Historic Houses of Ireland
Justin Green, Chairman, Historic Houses of Ireland

Opening Statement

Cathaoirleach, members of the Committee, thank you for the invitation to appear before you today. My name is Thomas Emmet. I am the Events and External Relations Officer of Historic Houses of Ireland. With me is Justin Green, our Chairman, who is himself the owner of Ballyvolane House in Cork.

Historic Houses of Ireland is a registered charity, founded in 2008. We represent the custodians of Ireland’s historic homes, buildings, estates, gardens and archives that remain in private hands. Our membership ranges from modest country houses, thatched cottages and
vernacular farmhouses to some of Ireland’s most recognisable castles and estates. Perhaps surprisingly, more than three quarters of our member houses are no longer in the hands of the original family – the vast majority have been taken on as a labour of love. We are grateful to be supported in this work through the Heritage Council’s Heritage Organisation Support Fund, and wish to put on record our thanks to the Council for its long-term commitment to our work.

I should declare a personal interest at the outset: I am also a next-generation heritage property owner myself—at Altidore Castle in Wicklow—and I chair the Young Irish Georgians, a network for the next generation of heritage custodians and every young person passionate about the survival of Ireland’s built heritage. So the issues I am raising today are not abstract to me.

I want to say clearly at the outset: we support this legislation. We welcome the creation of a national register for short-term tourist accommodation. It will bring transparency and standards to the sector, of which over half of our members are a part. We also fully recognise
the need to return properties in urban areas to the long-term housing market. That is not in dispute. But I am here today because we are genuinely worried about what this Bill will mean for the people we represent—and through them, for the heritage they protect and the communities they sustain.

Our members’ properties are overwhelmingly in rural Ireland. They are on the Record of Protected Structures in their respective counties. They include thatched cottages as well as Georgian houses, Victorian estates, and medieval tower houses. These are not commercial
operators in any conventional sense. They are families who have rescued or inherited extraordinary buildings and who carry, largely without public funding, the enormous cost of maintaining and restoring them.

Our 2025 annual survey of members, a summary of which we are happy to share with the Committee, paints a stark picture. The costs of maintaining an historic property are endless,and constantly increasing. For instance, ninety-one per cent of our members rank insurance
costs as one of their top three concerns—the single most cited challenge, by a huge margin. Standard insurers routinely refuse to cover heritage properties, and specialist heritage insurance premiums can be multiples of what a modern home would cost—because protected structures must by law be rebuilt using original materials and specialist conservation craftspeople. Tourism accommodation income is how many of our members – particularly on the smaller end – stay afloat. It funds the roof repairs, the conservation work, the rewiring, the insurance premiums. It is often the difference between a building that thrives and one that falls into
decline.

And these are not just private benefits. The contribution of heritage houses to rural Ireland goes far beyond employment and visitor spending—important as those are. Our members are custodians of biodiversity, managing gardens, woodlands and demesne landscapes that function as vital habitats for pollinator species and native wildlife. Many have undertaken rewilding and nature restoration projects on their estates. They host community events—concerts, markets, heritage open days, school visits. They maintain archives and collections that are part of the cultural record of the country. In communities where the local church has closed and the post office is gone, the historic house is often the last anchor of community life and identity.

Heritage tourism is one of rural Ireland’s most authentic economic assets. When a historic house opens its doors to visitors, the local community benefits directly: the restaurants, the shops, the local attractions, the tradespeople and conservation craftspeople who carry out the restoration work. Fáilte Ireland’s research shows that for every euro spent on accommodation, two euro fifty is spent locally in other businesses. We need to protect that, not inadvertently undermine it. Combined, our members have over 2,000 bed spaces that could contribute to rural tourism. Legislation that undermines that intent would have a massive impact in every rural area in Ireland.

So what concerns us? The Bill requires all short-term let hosts to register with Fáilte Ireland by 20 May this year and to confirm their compliance with planning requirements. We support this principle. But let me describe what it looks like in practice for our members.
One of our members – an elderly couple of limited means – has spent years restoring a single turret room on the wall of their estate—a room that was derelict for decades before they brought it back to life—and now wishes to let it to visitors. They are terrified of falling foul of
planning rules. Others plan to convert Georgian coach houses and other outbuildings on their protected estate into guest suites, using conservation craftspeople and heritage-grade materials—at enormous expense—to create something that is both authentic and beautiful. Still others have derelict gate lodges – small buildings at the end of a long avenue that could never function as someone’s long-term home. Hermitages, ice houses, stables, gamekeeper’s huts, yurts – all ripe for the rural tourism landscape – all placed at risk by a lack of clarity and
common sense exemptions – and the threat of planning enforcement.

The National Planning Statement that is supposed to set out how local authorities should handle these applications has not yet been published. We are three months from the deadline and our members do not know what the rules will be. Though planning permission has been a requirement since June 2025, local councils and the Department of Housing have signalled different things in conversation with us since then, and our members are not sure whose guidance to follow. Data cited at this Committee’s session in December indicated that just 1.3% of short-term lets in the State were planning-compliant – what hope for complex historic structures that require sensitive conservation and special planning considerations? The ITIC has warned of a cliff edge: tens of thousands of properties available on 19 May, and virtually
none on 20 May. That is a real risk for tourism capacity across the country, but for our members it is an existential one.

So what do we need?

First, the National Planning Statement must be published urgently. Three months from the deadline, the people affected by this legislation still do not know what will be expected of them.

Second, there must be a reasonable grace period from when the NPS is published, during which hosts can register with Fáilte Ireland while their planning applications are being processed. The ITIC has previously called for nine months. It prevents the cliff edge without undermining the regulatory objectives. We support that as a minimum but anticipate that most heritage properties will require something closer to two years to get their planning affairs in order.

Third, and most importantly from our perspective: we must have exemptions for historic and heritage properties that cannot be deemed suitable for long-term housing stock. Buildings and structures within the curtilage of a principal private residence that are unsuitable for long-term residential letting—turrets, gate lodges, coach houses, stable yard conversions, walled garden cottages on protected estates should be exempted from the change-of-use requirement – indeed should be treated as if those beds were an intrinsic part of the principal residence. The requirements for houses open under Section 482 with Revenue and the Department of Housing already take into consideration curtilage when granting aid, so there is precedent for this in existing legislation.

We understand that vernacular buildings such as thatched cottages may be exempted in the NPS. We welcome that, and we represent thatch owners among our members. We believe the same logic should apply to heritage buildings more broadly. These properties are not part of the
housing supply and never will be. Requiring change-of-use planning permission for them serves no housing policy objective. But removing them from the tourism market will irreparably damage heritage preservation and the rural economies that depend on it.

I want to leave the Committee with two figures from our survey. Eighty per cent of our members have a next generation ready to take on their house. But only 58 per cent believe their house will actually survive into that next generation. That gap—between willingness and viability—is the story of heritage ownership in Ireland today. And it is a gap that this legislation, if not carefully calibrated, risks widening further. Our members need to be able to carry on with confidence. They need to know that the legislation they are being asked to comply with will not inadvertently take away the income that keeps their buildings standing—and that funds the insurance premiums, the conservation
specialists, and the jobs that these houses sustain in their local communities. Without that confidence, the risk is very real: a near future of decline and dereliction across some of Ireland’s most important heritage properties in rural communities that can least afford
to lose them. We have seen heritage properties that were once a community resource – open to visitors, hosting events, employing local people – sold to owners with no interest in maintaining that public role. That is the future this legislation risks accelerating.

We are not asking for the legislation to be weakened. We are asking for it to be right. We are not asking for special treatment—we are asking for appropriate treatment. The legislation already recognises that different property types should be treated differently: the population threshold, the principal private residence exemption, the 90-day rule. We are asking that the same logic be applied to heritage buildings that are, by their nature, unsuitable for long-term residential use.

We support the register, we support the objectives of this Bill, and we want to work with the Committee and with Government to make sure it works for everyone—including the custodians of Ireland’s built heritage.

We are happy to take any questions, and our Chairman Justin Green is here to speak to the personal realities of what this legislation will mean for heritage property owners.

Irish Times Article 17/2/2026

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 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