Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I agree with the Deputy that their mortgage outlay is one of the principal issues they have to deal with every month. I also fully understand, from direct contact with so many people, the numbers who struggle to meet their mortgage repayments. Obviously, this is part of the legacy of the economic crisis of a number of years ago.

The Deputy asked if I had met the banks specifically on the issue. I have not. He is aware that the Government is not in a position to direct what interest rates should be; nor does it want to become the director of what they should be. However, it is not happy with the current position, given the emerging evidence that the reduction in the interest rates at which banks borrow money from their lenders has not been passed on to consumers. The Deputy will be aware of many of the reasons behind this.

On the one hand, the Government has been dealing with cases of mortgage distress and mortgage arrears which are causing difficulties for many and committed to bringing forward a range of measures to attempt in the next short period to deal with mortgages in long-term distress. The Minister for Finance met the Governor of the Central Bank to discuss the question of higher interest rates being charged on variable rate mortgages in Ireland. Both he and the Governor noted the lending charges to banks and the rates being charged to mortgage holders and the Central Bank has undertaken to do further work on the scale of what is involved and the justification of the banks for the higher rates being charged to Irish mortgage holders in comparison to their counterparts in the eurozone. That work will continue and, obviously, the Minister and the Government will monitor the position very closely.

I do not want to do anything that would interfere with the process or the principle of people being able to acquire mortgages at competitive interest rates in a situation where the banks have been normalised. The capacity to obtain a mortgage at a competitive interest rate has been a fundamental part of home acquisition and home ownership, to which people in Ireland legitimately aspire. The Deputy is quite right to raise the matter and it is one on which the Government is focused. There is, obviously, a requirement for it not to become the director of mortgage interest rate levels. That said, it has made its views very clearly known to the Governor of the Central Bank through the Minister for Finance.

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