Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

It is a priority that people need to be supported to remain in their own homes. Mortgage interest supplement is only one way of doing that. The mortgage interest supplement will only apply to a relatively small number of people who find themselves in difficulty in repaying their mortgages. People might find themselves in that difficulty by virtue of lower incomes or having lost their job, or whatever. Therefore, it must be tackled in a number of different ways.

The mortgage interest supplement is meeting the needs of over 14,000 people today. There is evidence that perhaps 10% of those who apply do not qualify for it. That is the information we are getting back from CWOs. It is not as high as might have been indicated in different reports earlier this year.

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