Dublin City Council is to up the ante in its bid to clamp down on illegal short-term lets in the city.

The local authority estimates that Airbnb removed 2,000 housing units from the residential market last year.

New rules were brought in for Airbnb properties in July in a bid to ease the housing crisis, but these restrictions have so far failed to make an impact.

The local authority has now taken on additional staff to deal exclusively with enforcement of the law.

Sinn Féin's Housing spokesperson Eoin O'Broin said these new officers will clamp down on rogue Airbnbs.

Mr O'Broin said: "Almost all local authorities that have rent pressure zones have applied for additional resources. Some local authorities are taking one or two extra staff, the larger local authorities like Dublin where the bulk of short-term letting is taking place have applied for 12 additional staff.

"Those staff are crucial because they are your planning enforcement officers, they are the people who are going to proactively identify the properties that aren't legally compliant and start to engage with the owners to get them either to comply with the law or to prosecute them."