[REDACTED] Airbnb’s meeting with the Department of Housing

Ask any journalist in Ireland and they’ll have an FOI tale that ranges from infuriating to ludicrous. Take for example this response I got today from the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage.

It relates to a meeting between department officials (including Darragh O’Brien’s special advisor Kevin Dillon) and five representatives from Airbnb’s public policy team that took place on April 14. I sought the minutes of the meeting through FOI.

According to the lobbying register, the meeting was to “demonstrate economic value to the tourism industry and discuss short-term letting regulations” and to “engage with the Department of Housing in relation to short-term letting regulations and demonstrate economic value”.

Sounds interesting, right? Especially in a housing crisis and as lockdown measures are being lifted. The tourism trade would be interested too. What was discussed at the meeting? I wish I could tell you.

The FOI request returned a one-page document:

The decision letter had this to say:

“The main purpose of the meeting was for Airbnb to give a presentation on different short-term letting regimes in operation in a number of cities in both the US and Europe for the purpose of feeding in to the development of possible new legislative provisions that might be introduced here. Thus, I have redacted details of the meeting under section 29(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2014 as it relates to the deliberative process and Section 36(1)(b) as it relates to commercial sensitivity.”