THERE are 17 times more properties available on the short-term rental site Airbnb in Kinsale compared to properties available for rental on a long term rental site, according to a Cork Senator.

Sen Tim Lombard described these figures as ‘alarming’ after he discovered that in his own constituency in Kinsale there are only five properties available on Daft.ie, compared to 85 on Airbnb.

The lack of rental accommodation in the coastal town was highlighted by The Southern Star last month when 19-year-old art student Ruby Rose Kingston Parker went public about being homeless and the difficulties she had in securing suitable long term rental accommodation.

Sen Lombard said greater enforcement of short-term letting legislation is needed now more than ever.

‘We need to ensure that the legislation brought in by Fine Gael in 2019 to tackle this issue is implemented and enforced by our local authorities.

‘This was introduced to ease the housing crisis by freeing up properties which are currently used for short term lettings or Airbnb and introducing them back into the traditional long-term rental sector.’

Sen Lombard said that in Cork city for example, there are 51 properties listed on Daft.ie compared to 94 on Airbnb, while in Cork county there are 115 properties listed compared to over 300 on Airbnb.

‘Figures provided by the Department of Housing show that planning authorities have reported 6,121 instances of properties potentially in breach of the short-term letting legislation since its introduction, resulting in the commencement of almost 3,000 investigations and the issuing of 2,300 warning letters,’ he concluded.