Airbnb and other short-term rental providers face multimillion-euro fines under tough new rules targeting illegal lettings, writes Craig Hughes.
The Short Term Letting and Tourism Bill 2025 will introduce penalties for platforms that allow short-term lets without planning permission to be advertised on their sites when it comes into law next year.
Online platforms could be fined up to 2% of their annual revenue for breaches of the long-awaited legislation, which was published yesterday.
In the case of Airbnb last year that would amount to €96m.
However, there remains some opposition from members of the Cabinet from Co. Kerry, with concerns over how it would impact the tourism industry.
It was revealed last week that Kerry ministers Norma Foley and Michael Healy-Rae opposed the inclusion of a measure that would mean shortterm lets would not be permitted in areas where the population is 10,000 or greater, and this issue was not resolved before the publication of the…