Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

The renewed programme for Government sets out the Government's commitments to introduce new measures to protect families having difficulties with their mortgage repayments and personal indebtedness under the headings Protecting the Family Home and Helping Those in Debt.

In February of this year, I informed the Government of my proposals regarding expanding the membership of the interdepartmental mortgage arrears group, under the chairmanship of Mr. Hugh Cooney. The terms of reference of the group, which I have approved, reflect the commitments made by the Government both in the renewed programme for Government and in subsequent Government decisions relating to the issues of mortgage arrears and personal debt.

The revamped mortgage arrears and personal debt group has commenced its work and is meeting regularly. I understand that initially the emphasis will be on exploring the feasibility of a range of possible options for improving the level of mortgage support to homeowners in difficulty and will later address the personal debt issue. Proposals will be based on factual information gathered by the group and will take into account the findings of existing reports and mortgage support schemes in operation in other jurisdictions. I expect that these recommendations will be made to me on a rolling basis as the group progresses with its findings and that a final report on this phase of the review will be ready by end June 2010.

The Deputy will be aware of the other supports available to mortgage holders including the code of conduct on mortgage arrears, the mortgage interest subsidy scheme and the services provided by the Money Advice and Budgeting Service, all of which I have spoken extensively about in the House on many occasions.

In addition, the Law Reform Commission's consultation paper on personal debt management and debt enforcement, published in September 2009, contains an extensive list of provisional recommendations for reform of the law on personal debt. I understand the commission is aims to have its final report available by the end of August this year. The group will be taking account of these recommendations as it proceeds to address the personal debt aspects of its terms of reference.

The Enforcement of Court Orders (Amendment) Act 2009, provides that certain safeguards will apply to the provisions under which a court may hear an application or grant an imprisonment order against a debtor who has failed to comply with an instalment order. The Act ensures that the court will not imprison the debtor unless it is satisfied that he has the means to pay and may also postpone the execution of an imprisonment order until such time as it believes just. In addition, the court will inform a debtor of the risk of imprisonment and of his entitlement to apply for legal aid. The Act gives the court a clear power to vary the terms of an order to pay by instalments or alternatively to refer the parties for mediation.

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