The government must legislate against the out-of-control number of AirBnBs and vacant homes across Ireland, according to Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne.<\/p>\n
Deputy Hearne said:<\/p>\n
\u201cToday, we\u2019ve heard two interconnected stories which highlight the utter disaster of the housing crisis and the failure of government housing policy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThreshold has shown that more than 8,600 second homes are advertised on AirBnB, whose report outlines that short-term lets now outnumber homes to rent by four to one, while some counties have 25 times more AirBnBs than long-term rental units.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are 2,555 families homeless – the Dublin Region Homeless Executive has said today that destitute children are being pushed into rough sleeping as emergency accommodation fails to meet rising demand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe could house all 2,555 homeless families three times over in the number of AirBnB properties let out on a permanent basis. In Kerry, there are now thirty-one AirBnBs to each home.<\/p>\n
\u201cYoung people, and increasingly middle- and pension-aged people, are locked out of long-term rentals and home ownership while thousands of these homes are available as short-stay accommodation – this is worsened further by the thousands of vacant homes littered around the country, which the government has taken to action to remedy.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis state was founded on the concept of public or common good, but it is clear from the hoarding of empty properties in the middle of a housing crisis that this principle has been lost.<\/p>\n
\u201cFianna F\u00e1il and Fine Gael showed their hand when they bowed to the Healy-Rae lobby and changed proposed short-term let restrictions to exclude Killarney and other towns of over 20,000 people from being affected.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mask has slipped; the government cannot keep selling the tall tale that these changes are in the interest of the greater good.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government must change its course when it comes to housing policy and legislate against AirBnB\u2019s disproportionate presence in the market and the hoarding of vacant properties across the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
March 13th, 2026<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The government must legislate against the out-of-control number of AirBnBs and vacant homes across Ireland, according to Social Democrats housing spokesperson Rory Hearne. Deputy Hearne said: \u201cToday, we\u2019ve heard two interconnected stories which highlight the utter disaster of the housing crisis and the failure of government housing policy. \u201cThreshold has shown that more than 8,600 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":15487,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[663,10,7,510],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16506","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-homelessness","category-housing-crisis","category-press-release","category-rory-hearne"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n