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# A Scenic Place to Visit, A Hard Place to Live
- URL: https://aontachtmedia.ie/a-scenic-place-to-visit-a-hard-place-to-live/
- Published: 2026-10-27T10:58:51.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-27T10:58:51.000Z
- Description: In the tourist towns that sit near the border of West Cork and South Kerry the housing crisis isn’t an abstract national problem that appears in the broadsheets.
- Author: Tadgh Ó Cuill-Maonlaí
- Tags: Critical Analysis

In the tourist towns that sit near the border of West Cork and South Kerry - corresponding roughly with the edges of the picturesque [Shehy Mountain district](https://roaringwaterjournal.com/tag/shehy-mountains/?ref=aontachtmedia.ie) and [Muskerry Gaeltacht](https://www.rte.ie/archives/2016/0518/789200-pocket-sized-gaeltachts/?ref=aontachtmedia.ie), from the smaller towns of Macroom, Bantry, and Kenmare, to the larger example of Killarney - the housing crisis isn’t an abstract national problem that appears in the broadsheets. Instead, it’s a daily reality of notices to quit, [HAP top-ups that eat into wages](https://threshold.ie/hap-topups-are-putting-families-at-risk-of-homeles/?ref=aontachtmedia.ie), social housing lists stretching into the years, and long-term lets vanishing into short-term tourism. These are rural-derived, working-class communities servicing a visitor economy that extracts value while denying them secure homes. Given the nature of such an economy, many locals also experience seasonal unemployment and a loss of earnings. CSO data from 2023 outlined that [median weekly earnings](https://www.cso.ie/en/releasesandpublications/fp/fp-eaecsw/earningsandemploymentcharacteristicsofseasonalworkers2023/?ref=aontachtmedia.ie) for seasonal tourism employment was a miserable €273.25\. This contrasts harshly against [the significant sums of money that these areas receive through commerce](https://www.irishtimes.com/business/2024/04/11/wild-atlantic-way-worth-3-billion-in-annual-tourism-revenue-says-failte-ireland/?ref=aontachtmedia.ie), something that would be impossible without the workers.

The pattern is old. In the 19th century, [James Fintan Lalor](https://www.dib.ie/biography/lalor-james-fintan-a4645?ref=aontachtmedia.ie) (who later served as a source of inspiration for [James Connolly and Pádraig Pearse](https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/james-fintan-lalor-and-turbulent-times-1.1529626?ref=aontachtmedia.ie), with Jim Larkin [naming the IT&GWU’s pipe-band after him](https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/arid-20243366.html?ref=aontachtmedia.ie)) insisted that [the land of Ireland belonged to the people of Ireland](https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-20299349.html?ref=aontachtmedia.ie), not to those who claimed exclusive ownership of what no individual had created in wealth. In his day, [the Land League fought absentee landlords who treated the country as a rent-roll](https://openpress.universityofgalway.ie/materialforvictory/chapter/chapter-11-william-obrien/?ref=aontachtmedia.ie). Today, the landlords may be local investors, Cypriot funds or tourism operators, but the logic of extraction remains.

In the Killarney Municipal District alone, [more than 1,000 people](https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/munster/arid-41840829.html?ref=aontachtmedia.ie) remain on the social housing list. Councillors have been told tenants are “literally begging” for housing after receiving notices to quit as landlords sell up or refuse HAP. In 2025, [rents in the town rose by 13%](https://killarneyadvertiser.ie/news/rental-costs-in-killarney-reaching-unsustainable-levels/?ref=aontachtmedia.ie), and only a few long-term rentals are available on a given day. A record 82 presentations were made to the Homeless Information Centre in a single year. In the Kenmare Municipal District, [over 800 applicants](https://www.radiokerry.ie/news/over-800-applicants-on-the-social-housing-waiting-list-in-the-kenmare-md-483094?ref=aontachtmedia.ie) are seeking social housing, the majority for one and two-bed units. HAP payments in Kerry routinely breach defined limits: [two-thirds exceed the standard ceiling and one-third](https://www.independent.ie/county/kerry/south-kerry-news/kerrys-housing-support-payments-breach-limits-as-rental-market-squeeze-continues/a/115140384.html?ref=aontachtmedia.ie) hit the hard statutory maximum of 135 per cent. Rents for a one-bedroom apartment have risen roughly 50 per cent since 2020\. Short-term lets dominate the market; in parts of Kerry the ratio of Airbnb-style properties to long-term rentals has been [reported at a ratio of 31:1](https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41809421.html?ref=aontachtmedia.ie).

Meanwhile, across Cork County’s Western Division, which includes Bantry, [more than 2,000 households](https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/arid-41890567.html?ref=aontachtmedia.ie) sit on housing and transfer lists: [619 approved applicants](https://www.southernstar.ie/subscriber-exclusives/809-applicants-for-just-11-social-homes-4370929?ref=aontachtmedia.ie) not receiving other supports, and 1,384 on transfer lists, many of them already on HAP. In 2026 alone, 202 new applications were received. These figures don’t capture every household in insecure private rental or couch-surfing; they measure only those who have navigated the assessment process. In 2024, Bantry became home to [the council’s first Cost-Rental housing scheme](https://www.southernstar.ie/business/minister-obrien-in-bantry-to-open-councils-first-cost-rental-scheme-4310248?ref=aontachtmedia.ie), however, it comprised only 10 units. The Macroom Municipal District has seen [some social and affordable delivery](https://www.echolive.ie/corknews/arid-41876153.html?ref=aontachtmedia.ie), yet demand continues, with [dereliction and vacancy in both towns](https://www.corkcoco.ie/sites/default/files/2022-07/cork-county-council-housing-delivery-action-plan-2022-2026.pdf?ref=aontachtmedia.ie) remaining an issue (for example, 2023, anger arose when it emerged that 20 apartments in Macroom had been [vacant for over 18 years](https://www.southernstar.ie/news/queries-over-20-vacant-apartments-in-macroom-4258105?ref=aontachtmedia.ie)).

Fáilte Ireland’s dedicated ‘[West Cork and Kenmare Destination and Experience Development Plan](https://assets.failteireland.ie/5608854e-b2c7-0144-a5f6-88a7e629b0a4/dc72f2f2-ee01-41fc-af4f-d2f856ebfdb8/plan-dedp-west-cork-kenmare-2023.pdf?%5Fgl=1%2A19bvqxy%2A%5Fgcl%5Fau%2ANDExMjA0NzYxLjE3OTE0NzUyMzk.%2AFPAU%2ANDExMjA0NzYxLjE3OTE0NzUyMzk.%2A%5Fga%2AMTE2MzA3ODgzOS4xNzkxNDc1MjM5%2A%5Fga%5FQXN9X1MSHM%2AczE3OTE0NzUyMzckbzEkZzAkdDE3OTE0NzUyNDckajUwJGwwJGgxNDQ4NzQ3MTA2%2A%5Ffplc%2AbmdtQlgzcHNBMVN2NTQzVmFLQ1MlMkZEY0tsYmI0c09YOFBYTk84SUZBMktGOFRrcmhiT0VvZ3NoeFplaTFwJTJGMHU4ejdTJTJCWWU3UU1KTSUyRnZRRTV5JTJCOENHdzglMkZwUDRZdnJjRWxlM0xNd1ZLMklFSjlDUkVmZSUyQk1yb1JFUnpyS1ElM0QlM0Q.&ref=aontachtmedia.ie)’ is useful because it highlights a gap in the regional tourism strategy: the strategy acknowledges that accommodation capacity is already limiting growth and calls for more accommodation investment, but the focus is mainly on meeting visitor demand, not on ensuring that service economy workers can afford to live locally. While the plan asserts that there should be no decrease in local residents' housing stock, it doesn’t commit to supporting an increase in affordable housing for workers. Instead, the plan focuses on making tourism a more attractive sector and improving staff retention. However, a separate Fáilte Ireland report found that [52% of employers](https://www.failteireland.ie/en/research-and-insights/tourism-careers-research-2025?ref=aontachtmedia.ie) cited a lack of affordable local accommodation as a barrier to recruitment and retention.

Lalor recognised that political independence meant little without control of the material basis of life. “[Ireland her own, and all therein, from the sod to the sky](https://cartlann.org/authors/james-fintan-lalor/the-rights-of-ireland/?ref=aontachtmedia.ie),” he wrote. The Land League’s [agitation for fair rents, fixity of tenure and an end to arbitrary eviction](https://kids.britannica.com/students/article/Land-League/603587?ref=aontachtmedia.ie) was a direct challenge to the idea that private property in land could trump the needs of the people who lived and worked on it. Today’s equivalent is the subordination of homes to the tourist and investment market. Properties that could house local workers are withheld, [as shown by the ESRI](https://www.esri.ie/system/files/publications/RS208.pdf?ref=aontachtmedia.ie), for higher seasonal rental returns. [Global and domestic capital treat housing as an asset class](https://www.ssisi.ie/%5Ffiles/ugd/463248%5F4308c7b041b6472ba4c413e3cbbbb9a5.pdf?ref=aontachtmedia.ie). The state responds with HAP - a subsidy that props up private rents while leaving tenants exposed to terminations - with limited cost-rental and AHB schemes that never match the scale of need. The result is a two-tier countryside: scenic for visitors, precarious for those who keep the towns running.

The solution isn’t better management of scarcity. It’s [the assertion, in Lalor’s spirit](https://cartlann.org/authors/james-fintan-lalor/tenant-right-meeting-in-tipperary/?ref=aontachtmedia.ie), that [housing is a fundamental social right](https://www.lawlibrary.ie/viewpoints/right-to-housing-2/?ref=aontachtmedia.ie). That requires large-scale direct public building under democratic control, the compulsory acquisition of long-term vacant and derelict stock [to advance social justice](https://www.lawreform.ie/%5Ffileupload/Issues%20Papers/LRC%20IP%2013%20-%202017%20ISSUES%20PAPER%20COMPULSORY%20ACQUISITION%20OF%20LAND.pdf?ref=aontachtmedia.ie), strict limits on short-term letting in areas of proven need, and the organisation of tenants themselves. The Land League didn’t wait for landlords to become benevolent; it organised the people who paid the rent. Tenants face the same task. Until the working class of this region regards housing as a question of power, rather than charity or market adjustment, the lists will lengthen, the notices will continue, and the soil of Ireland will remain, in practice, the property of those who can extract most from it.