Sir, – Your recent feature "We are hiring, but who will staff our shops, pubs and restaurants?" (Jennifer O'Connell, Weekend Review, March 5th) highlights profound difficulties in finding accommodation for staff in Dingle's tourism industry.
In this, Dingle is emblematic of a deeper accommodation problem along the western seaboard. On this peninsula, only 53 per cent of properties are occupied, and a full quarter of the peninsula’s housing stock are unoccupied holiday homes.
Plenty of accommodation, but not for young families or those seeking to work and live in the community. Many young families struggle to obtain planning permission, and cannot compete on price with purchasers of second homes.
The upcoming Bill on vacant properties plans to exclude unoccupied holiday homes from being taxed.
Clearly it is an uncomfortable fact that many policymakers, commentators and senior decision-makers are themselves owners of second homes. But is it not time, in the face of a climate emergency and a housing crisis, that we actively discourage owning a spare house?
An annual 3 per cent levy would push owners of second homes to use them, sell on or pay up. – Is mise,
Dr PEADAR Ó FIONNÁIN,
Daingean Uí Chúise,
Co Chiarraí.