Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The report from the fourth quarter of last year showed that a significant number of mortgages were in distress due to mortgage arrears.

There is an issue with the mortgage to rent scheme that concerns both my Department and the Department of Finance. We are committed to expanding the scheme and there is money in the Estimate for this year for that purpose. However, we can do a lot better. We need to simplify the scheme and we know that a number of local authorities do not engage with it. There are people like David Hall at iCare Housing who have been doing a super job in this regard, as well as the Housing Agency, which is under the remit of my Department. The scheme offers a solution for people in systemic mortgage arrears failure, which is, in effect, the transfer of ownership to a local authority. We need to do a lot better in this area.

In regard to mortgage payment breaks, I have provided for an additional three months for local authority loans. Fewer than 500 people have availed of that facility or are still availing of it. More than half of those who availed of it in the first three months of the Covid-19 crisis have gone back to full payment. That is a good development but we need to work with those people who are still having difficulties paying their mortgages due to losing their jobs or having a serious reduction in their salary as a consequence of the pandemic.