Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy has come under fire after it emerged Dublin City Council is yet to appoint additional staff to enforce new short term letting regulations.

The new regulations, which are set to be launched on 01 July, will see planning laws implemented for short term lets.

Labour Senator Kevin Humphreys discovered that the Department of Housing has just provided Dublin City Council with the additional resources promised for further recruitment. Due to this delay, the local authority has not yet commenced the recruitment process. The new measures were first announced in October 2018.

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Senator Humphreys said: "There is no way the required staff will be hired, trained and in place by the beginning of July.

"What have Minister Murphy and his officials been doing for the last eight months that they delayed this allocation of resources?

"It took a long time to get the Minster to agree to introduce any regulation of Airbnb in the first place. I know I spent two years lobbying for these measures. Now to see that eight months after agreeing to regulate short term lets, in the middle of a housing crisis, the Minister and his Department are still suffering from the same lack of urgency.

"I want the Minister to explain why his Department, working with Dublin City Council, did not ensure the necessary staffing levels were in place before the beginning of July, and to clarify if he was aware that the necessary work was not being done to meet the deadline set by his own department."

(CM/JG)