Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 5 December 2019
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Central Bank: Discussion
Mr. Ed Sibley:
I do not know. We can try to find some information on that. There are two different lenses through which to look at this. One is the percentage of mortgage drawdowns, that is, how many people are drawing down mortgages and how many are switchers. This percentage has increased significantly. At its pre-crisis peak, it was in and around 19%. There is also another way of looking at it which is to ask how many people could save by switching either product or provider. Only a relatively small fraction of that number are doing so. There are many opportunities for people to switch and save. Tens of thousands of people could save money by moving product or provider. I appreciate that it is not totally easy to do but it is perfectly possible. We have had plenty of discussion on this topic in the past and a lot of discussion with Deputy Michael McGrath with regard to his Bill on mortgage rates. We recognise that there are challenges here. We are driving forward and trying to address the underlying fundamentals to make sure that the market will function better over the long term. We see some improvements but there is clearly more to be done both. We will continue to drive to improve the rate of switching but there is also the issue of culture and behaviour in some institutions.
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