Collins says ESRI report proves Airbnb “not the scapegoat some would have us believe”
“Let’s support short-term lets instead of demonising them” – Michael Collins TD
The leader of Independent Ireland, Michael Collins TD, has said that the latest ESRI report on Airbnb and the housing market “confirms that short-term letting is not the scapegoat some would have us believe” – and has urged the government to stop undermining a vital part of Ireland’s tourism economy. He said that short-term letting platforms like Airbnb are not the root cause of the rental property crisis.
Deputy Collins said the findings echo warnings his party has consistently raised, including in a statement issued earlier this year criticising the government's attempt to blame Air BnB for it's own long running failures in housing.
Deputy Collins was responding to a new report from the Economic and Social Research Institute which examined the effects of Airbnb listings on housing supply and rent prices. While the report acknowledged some impact in limited areas, it found that the overall contribution to rising rents and reduced supply was relatively modest.
“The narrative for the last two years has been that Airbnb is partly to blame for the housing crisis. What this report shows is that this simply doesn’t hold up,” Collins said. “In most parts of the country, the effects are negligible. And even in so-called ‘hotspots’, the ESRI estimates that the share of the market taken up by short-term lets is low compared to the bigger forces at play – like planning delays, investor funds, and government inaction.”
He said Independent Ireland had long argued that responsible short-term letting plays an important role, especially in rural and coastal communities where traditional accommodation is limited.
“In places like west Cork, Kerry, or Connemara, short-term lets aren’t competing with long-term housing – they’re enabling tourism to survive. They bring people into local cafés, shops, galleries, and pubs. They sustain livelihoods. Cutting them off to chase marginal housing gains makes no economic sense,” Collins said.
In March, The Independent Ireland leader criticised what it called the government’s “over-zealous” approach to regulation of the short-term letting sector, noting the introduction of a register that has been largely symbolic and entirely unenforced. The party argued that the government was focused more on headlines than on delivering real housing solutions.
“This latest ESRI report shows that the government’s narrative has been misplaced,” Collins said. “Airbnb is being treated as a convenient villain, but the facts tell a different story.”
Collins called for a more “balanced and evidence-led” approach to housing and tourism policy, concluding:
“If this government spent half as much time building homes and supporting tourism and hospitality as it does blaming Airbnb, we might be getting somewhere,” Collins said. “What Ireland needs is joined-up thinking – not kneejerk responses that sacrifice rural economies and tourism for political optics.”
