Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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196. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of residential mortgages here that are classified as sub-prime; the number of sub-prime lenders currently operating in the market; the total value of sub-prime mortgages outstanding; the rate of arrears on these mortgages; the actions specific to the sub-prime sector which are being taken to address arrears; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2423/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Retail credit firms are a regulated category of entities authorised to provide credit (in the form of cash loans) directly to individuals.  A register of all Retail Credit Firms is available on the Central Bank website at the following link:  .

I am informed by the Central Bank that, at end September 2013, six of these firms had a total of 17,807 primary dwelling (PDH) mortgage accounts and four had a total of 659 buy to let (BTL) mortgage accounts.  Regarding the level of outstanding debt on these accounts, there was a total of €3.354bn in outstanding PDH debt and a further €0.132bn in outstanding in BTL mortgage debt.  Of that outstanding debt, mortgage accounts amounting to €1.885bn (PDH) and €0.050bn (BTL) respectively were in arrears of over 90 days.

The same consumer protection framework applies to these retail credit lenders as to other regulated entities including the Consumer Protection Code (for PDH and BTL customers) and the Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears ( CCMA ) (for PDH customers only). These are statutory codes with which lenders are required to comply.   In particular, the sets out requirements for all mortgage lenders, including retail credit firms, dealing with borrowers facing or in mortgage arrears on a mortgage secured on a primary home and provides a strong consumer protection framework to ensure that borrowers struggling to keep up mortgage repayments are treated in a fair and transparent manner by their lender and that long term resolution is sought by lenders with each of their co-operating borrowers in mortgage difficulty.