Murphy still dragging his feet on short term lets

Labour Senator Kevin Humphreys has criticised the Minister for Housing, and his Department, accusing them of dragging their feet on implementing new regulations around short term lets.

Senator Humphreys said:

“The new regulations on short term lets are due to take effect on the 1st of July. Yet the Department of Housing has only just provided Dublin City Council with additional resources to begin the recruitment process for staff tasked with enforcing the new regulations. There is no way the required staff will be hired, trained and in place by the beginning of July.

“Following enquiries I made to Dublin City Council, I was informed that the Department had only recently sanctioned additional resources for the hiring of staff and that the recruitment process had not yet begun. Yet these new measures were announced in October 2018.

“What have Minister Murphy and his officials been doing for the last eight months that they delayed this allocation of resources?

“It took a long time to get the Minster to agree to introduce any regulation of Airbnb in the first place. I know I spent two years lobbying for these measures. Now to see that eight months after agreeing to regulate short term lets, in the middle of a housing crisis, the Minister and his Department are still suffering from the same lack of urgency

“I want the Minister to explain why his Department, working with Dublin City Council, did not ensure the necessary staffing levels were in place before the beginning of July, and to clarify if he was aware that the necessary work was not being done to meet the deadline set by his own department.”