Debate contribution: Holiday Homes and Short-term Lets
Debate contribution by Mrs Ciara Ferguson on .
- MLA
- Mrs Ciara Ferguson
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 4 November 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Holiday Homes and Short-term Lets
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5217111
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Sustainable, affordable and year-round vibrant communities must be achievable across all our rural, coastal and urban communities. The reality is this: our schools, businesses, services and communities cannot exist without people.
Therefore, we all have a duty to ensure that all people have the opportunity to live, work and make a life for themselves in their local area and community.
I thank the Members who tabled the motion, which is similar to one that we debated in May 2024. It acknowledges specific concerns about certain coastal towns and scenic areas, such as the Causeway Coast and Glens area and the Mourne Mountains, and our city centres. The motion notes the growth of unregulated short-term and holiday lets, which, due to rising house prices, risks eroding the very existence of our local communities who make those areas so special. Further to that, as a Derry MLA, I express my deep-rooted concerns about the general lack of delivery of social and affordable housing. In our constituency offices, we all have a significant number of daily interactions about the lack of suitable social and affordable housing for struggling renters, students, workers and families. Whilst we are making headway on economic development plans, including investing in our universities and the economy, there are still significant questions about the status of the Housing Executive's revitalisation and how, practically, we are going to deliver the targets laid out in the housing supply strategy, which runs until 2039. Balanced regulation can work, and tourism and community can coexist; however, that is only deliverable if social and affordable housing is delivered at scale to meet the level of existing need and if we place sustainability before short-term gain. With nearly 50,000 households on our social housing waiting list as of March this year, which is the highest total number of applicants since 2010, I cannot emphasise this point enough: we have a moral responsibility to make housing accessible and affordable for all. A lack of affordable housing affects not just individuals but entire communities. Businesses cannot attract and maintain workers, schools lose pupils and staff, hospitals lose key workers, and whole communities become unstable and unsustainable. As an MLA for Foyle, I emphasise that, whilst we are immensely proud of the history and culture of the area, from the Bogside to the Waterside, we are equally angry about the sight of boarded-up homes and the reality of rising rents and house prices when families are desperately calling out for support to find suitable, affordable and sustainable places to call "home". Across Ireland, we do not lack space, nor do we lack heart; however, housing policy and investment are not keeping pace with people's needs. We need more investment now, in social and affordable homes. We need genuinely collaborative partnership working across our councils, housing associations, the Housing Executive and our communities. We need balanced regulation and common-sense approaches to tourism and investment as interconnected drivers of economic growth. Additionally, we urgently need to see the delivery of social and affordable housing at scale, the prioritisation of community wealth building and regeneration projects and, fundamentally, the eradication of poverty and homelessness once and for all.
526 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.03 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.93).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.04 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.03 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.93 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.83 |
| Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism | 0.09 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.03 |
| Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues | 0.02 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.02 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:46 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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