Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I explained to the Deputy, this was a matter for the Central Bank to review. I asked that it review it, which it did. It came back with a very comprehensive assessment of how this issue is being dealt with inside the Irish mortgage market. I understand the anxiety and the concerns that people have when dealing with their mortgages on their homes. It is important to state the figures on how this issue has been dealt with in Ireland to date. At the end of 2012, the number of mortgages and loan accounts in arrears was 143,851. At the end of June of this year, it was 66,479. The number of mortgages in arrears has halved from 18% to 9%, from just under 38,000 to just over 21,000. It has come down by a third. Every repossession is one that I wish was not happening. That is why we have a code of conduct for mortgage arrears. In 2015, the figure for repossession stood at 113, and then it went to 166. In 2017, it was 77, and for the first half of this year it stood at 18. They are the figures for non-bank entities. The figures for banks also show a trend where the number of repossessions is lower than expected, showing that we have a system that offers protection to people in great difficulty.

See this speech in context