Mr. Paul Joyce:

To take the last question first, Free Legal Advice Centres are often confused with the Legal Aid Board, which is the State civil legal aid service.

We are a voluntary organisation. However, we have legal advice centres throughout Ireland. They are staffed by volunteer lawyers who are in private practice and who give of their time to offer basic legal advice, mostly at evening clinics. Generally speaking, there are no waiting lists but some centres operate by appointment only. Sometimes, a person might not get to a centre on a given evening because of a queue but, in general, the centres provide fairly quick access. However, the service is for advice only; it is not a legal aid service.

Another question was on the mortgage-to-rent scheme and how it can be improved. We are not intimately familiar with the scheme. Clúid Housing is the housing association with the most experience and it has processed the most cases under the mortgage-to-rent scheme. An announcement was made by the Government last May. The then Minister, Deputy Kelly, suggested the mortgage-to-rent scheme was to be expanded. However, there have not been any developments since then.

A number of the accounts in arrears for over two years are probably financially unsustainable by any yardstick. A mortgage-to-rent arrangement seems to be a necessary step at that point. Factors include the valuation of the property and the earnings of the individual. One problem which has not been mentioned to any great extent is the fact that quite a number of these properties may have judgment mortgages registered against the property by an unsecured creditor who has obtained a court judgment. These may constitute a barrier in terms of the housing association being able to buy a property with a judgment on the title. That needs to be examined. The question of finance invested by the State in the scheme is also an important issue to address. The mortgage-to-rent option is not available if the property is in positive equity. Should that necessarily be the case if the borrower is in such clear arrears and financial difficulty? Clúid Housing undertook a review in 2013 and proposed a long list of potential improvements to the scheme.