Mr. John O'Connor:

At the bigger picture level, the Deputies who are on the ground know better than we do how serious the number of households in mortgage arrears is as an issue. There is a financial issue, but it has been going on for so long that the psychological effect on families is incredibly serious. We absolutely must address it. I need to be careful about what I say, but the Central Bank and the Department of Finance would be focusing on it from the banks' point of view. I urge the committee to look at it from the people's point of view - the families and households. There are very serious levels of arrears. There are arrears and then there is restructuring. Much of the restructuring is not sustainable.

The mortgage-to-rent scheme has not been effective to date. Between private and local authority mortgage-to-rent properties, there are only 357 households. While it is important that those households have been helped, there may be another 100 coming through that will avail of it. We have to make that mortgage-to-rent scheme work more effectively. We need to overcome the issues the Deputy raised over the number of bedrooms and location of house. At the moment, the process requires an approved housing body to purchase the property. The whole process may take too long. We have ideas for how it could be improved, but it must be improved because many families should be able to avail of the mortgage-to-rent scheme.