Irish Self Catering Federation

19/06/2026

On Newstalk Aine Daly spoke about the latest Daft Q1 Housing report.
- Rent up by 80% in 10 years.
- Average Rent of 2 bed apartment is €2170 in Dublin.
- Investment funds own 45,000 apartments, and pay no tax on profit
Frustration.
The Self-catering sector did not cause the problem and we are not the solution. Government policy is.

19/06/2026

The hard working ISCF Board of Directors meet in Dublin this week. All board members are voluntary and we really appreciate the commitment and time given to self-catering sector.
The board meeting discussed issues of running the organisation, legislation due on the sector. These are the Register for STTL Bill and National Planning Statement for STR.
If you own a self-catering business you need to be a member of your national representative body which also provides quality assurance for owners with visual inspection and certification.

18/06/2026

Most data on derelict property is crowd sourced, as citizens very annoyed with Gov on level of unused properties.An example would be Cross who puts maps showing dereliction on social media. THere are empty buildings, shops, offices in every town and village in Ireland.
Galway Co Co collected no derelict site tax in 2024.

Galway city or county council collected are two of eleven local authorities to not collect a single cent in derelict property tax

17/06/2026

Thanks to Michael Healy Rae for asking clarifying questions of Minister Burke on Register for STTL Bill, yet to be published. The National Planning Statement for STR is also due for publication.

16/06/2026

Minister Brown said short term letting bill for Airbnb will be the strongest in EU. This will be the most restrictive, unbalance and has no clarity despite this interview.
Is a retrospecitve planning requirement even legal?
Self-catering must be ok as Minister referred to Airbnb only in this interview!

Housing Minister, James Browne discusses his new plan for regulating short term lets which he brought to Cabinet this morning.

16/06/2026

Minister Brown calls his planning regulation for AirBnB the strongest in the EU - without giving the sector representative body the documentation- again!
Assume he means all self-catering SME family run businesses? We still need clarity on the process in streamlining planning permission - what is the streamlined pricess?
For more housing look to
vacant and derelict sites owned by Gov and companies,
build more homes,
give planning permission to people living in rural areas,
get clear data from LEA’s on how many properties built as STR are now in the longterm rental or Refugee accommodation sector.

SME Self-catering family businesses did not cause the housing crisis and we are not the solution.

The Minister for Housing is to bring controversial and delayed proposals for a short-term lettings register before Cabinet later today.

16/06/2026

Minister Browne bringing Planning proposals for self-catering to cabinet today. We look forward to clarity on Gov positions and hope to see exemptions the ISCF proposed are included.
Ireland is the only EU country to attach a retrospective planning requirement to existing STR business before get onto the national Register.

If you own a self-catering business you need to be a member of your national representative organisation.

The Minister for Housing is to bring controversial and delayed proposals for a short-term lettings register before Cabinet later today.

15/06/2026

Ireland is a country with derelict and empty properties all over the country, but not all derelict properties treated the same.
If a private landlord has a derelict property, they are fined for derelict property.
If the council or local authority or OPW and other Gov body has a derelict property - no fine.
If you renovate the property you own as a Self-catering business, you are running an unregistered business, as there is no register for STR since 2008. The Gov say you now have to apply for planning as STR business, despite many buildings renovated many years ago.
This is not fair or equal treatment.

Councils are paying millions of euro every month to private landlords and investors in rent for thousands of properties for social housing, despite owning more than 3,500 vacant homes.

14/06/2026

No positive news for self-catering in new tourism data, as we are unregistered, though no fault of owners.
Tourism beds for refugees drop by10% Ireland contracted by the State for refugees over the past year, for hotels/registered beds.
This means last month 9,110 or 18%, of contracted beds were in sites on Fáilte Ireland’s accommodation register, while 42,507, or 82% of the total, are in non-registered properties. These are mostly self-catering groups schemes, in rural areas with loss to local economies.

In August, the Government will begin phasing out accommodation that has been provided to people from Ukraine since 2022

12/06/2026

No updates from Dept of Housing in Ireland on proposals for the Self-Catering sector in relation to planning, the 20,000 limit and Grandfather Rule.
German Ministers for Housing & Construction met yesterday. The attached is press release which states that the federals states agree that the EU initiatives should not lead to additional reporting requirements, parallel structures on encroaching on national competences.
Concern on EU Guidelines on planning permission procedures, funding for housing sector and STR regulations.
If you own a self-catering business, no matter how small, you ned to be a member of your national association to protect your businesses.

Die für Bauen und Wohnen zuständigen Ministerinnen, Minister und Senatorinnen und Senatoren der Länder haben sich auf ihrer 148. Sonder-Bauministerkonferenz in Berlin intensiv mit den wohnungspolitischen Vorhaben der Europäischen Union befasst. Im Mittelpunkt stand der von der Europäischen Komm...