Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I have a quick question and not a speech. The Deputy from Fine Gael and I were not given our time slots when we should have been. We were grouped together, but that is an argument for another day.

My question is for the Minister of State, Deputy O'Sullivan. The banks regularly come before another committee to discuss the issue of mortgage resolution. The vast majority of shared ownership mortgages are in arrears and the figures we are beginning to receive from local authorities show they are also in arrears on rent on the 50% they own. This is a huge distress factor for the individuals themselves because they are concerned they cannot meet their mortgage repayments and are not able to meet the rental element either. There seems to be an unwillingness to resolve this issue. There is no provision in the Estimate for a resolution to these mortgages. These were all high-risk mortgages in the first instance because they had to have had two refusals from lending agencies. It is a real drag on local authorities because they are making full repayments to the Housing Finance Agency. The Housing Finance Agency has provision for bad debts or write down. Is the write down on the mortgage the responsibility of the Department or the Housing Finance Agency? A large number of families are in a very delicate situation. It is also causing problems for local authority funding, but there seems to be no resolution for these individuals. Where should we expect to see funding put in place to resolve mortgage resolution issues in this area?