New Coalition plans aim to allow more tourism hotspots in Ireland to escape the Airbnb clampdown by exempting areas with populations below 10,000 from requiring planning permission.
The Fáilte Ireland register will be introduced to monitor short-term lettings that are currently operating without the necessary permissions.
The government previously planned to set the exemption limit for Airbnb regulations for areas of 5,000 residents but has since increased it to 10,000.
Local councils in rural areas will have the flexibility to approve short-term lets, while urban areas with populations over 10,000 will see a ban on Airbnbs.
Under the register, operators of Airbnbs will have to log their properties and include their registration numbers on their adverts on websites such as Airbnb, Booking.com or Vrbo. Landlords who use properties for short stays would have to register or face being fined up to €5,000 and websites would also be fined up to €5,000 if they did not remove adverts of properties that were not officially registered.
Enterprise and Tourism Minister Peter Burke will put forward the plans this week.
