 Minister for Housing, Owen Murphy has announced plans to tackle housing shortages and regulate short-term let-ins and home-sharing such as Airbnb. As of June 1st, 2019, professional landlords will have to secure commercial planning permission to lease their properties on short-term basis, which is unlikely to be granted in areas of high housing demand. It's a step in the right direction, absolutely. Airbnb needs to be regulated when we fall for that over the last few months since the student population crisis has really hit a massive breaking point. It is a step in the right direction and I do hope it follows on maybe adapting the Toronto model of how things were done there, but I hope it's not just hot air because what we found in the past is the government does like to say things and then actually not follow up with them with regulation, things tend to get postponed. Owners who operate a home share will also not be permitted to rent for more than 14 days at a time and for longer than 90 days a year. Yeah, I would like my fellow students to not have such a tough time trying to get accommodation, so if that helps them out I'm all up for regulation, but same time I understand that they have a business to run and maybe they have some other struggles themselves, but maybe some regulations and some dialogue between the two groups can hopefully work out a better deal for everyone. The way I see accommodation, the point of it is to accommodate and it seems like the landlords have the biggest advantage at the moment and I think residents of all types should have a voice and a say in the matter. I do think it will help the housing situation in Dublin, but I do think that it's only once properly should have the right to rent it out as they wish. A spokesperson for Airbnb has said that home sharing didn't cause Ireland's historic housing concerns and many will be disheartened to hear a false promise that these proposals are the solution. Karen Gaffney, DCU TV News.