Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

That is why I said "to clarify".

As the Minister stated, the Government is providing an array of supports for citizens during this difficult period, which we intend to keep under review. The Money Advice and Budgeting Service, MABS, continues to help anyone experiencing problems with budgeting and debt during the Covid-19 pandemic. MABS, under the aegis of the Citizens Information Board, provides assistance to people, in particular those on low incomes or living on social welfare payments, who are over-indebted and need help and advice with debt problems. As part of its service, MABS also provides help and advice to those who are in mortgage arrears. Its services are provided by phone, email, post and video conferencing where face-to-face engagement is necessary. A Covid-19 live feed has been created on the MABS website to host important financial developments and to highlight how they may affect the public. A new call-back and instant messaging service is also available on mabs.ie, where the public can request a call back from a MABS adviser.

I encourage tenants to reach out for help if they find themselves in financial difficulty and to engage with their landlord at the earliest opportunity. Their tenancy relationship should not be put in jeopardy. I encourage them to talk to MABS or the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. Income supports and rent supplements are available to assist. If a tenant is already availing of HAP or rent supplement and his or her income has declined on foot of Covid-19, I encourage the tenant to contact his or her local authority, in the case of HAP, or the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, in the case of rent supplement. The current level of payment can be reassessed in light of any change in circumstances, such as loss of income.

I, along with the Department and the Residential Tenancies Board, urge landlords to consider the negative impact of Covid-19 on their tenants and to show forbearance where temporary rent arrears may arise. As noted earlier, the Department is conducting research on the potential accumulation of rent arrears during the emergency period in conjunction with the ESRI. The research will have regard to the range of rental and income supports made available to those affected by Covid-19 and will assess the combined impact that the supports and changed consumption patterns has had on the incidence of rent arrears. Preliminary findings suggest there was not a significant build-up of arrears over the period from April to June, inclusive, which is welcome news.

The Department recently published a guidance document on Covid-19 supports for landlords and tenants that set out the emergency rental measures and income and other supports available to tenants and landlords during the emergency period. The guidance document and a list of frequently asked questions are available on rtb.ie. The RTB encourages all its customers who may require assistance or advice, including in respect of any threatened eviction, to contact it via its webchat service, although there may be delays with its phone lines during this emergency period.

With regard to debt generally, the Insolvency Service of Ireland, ISI, provides a debt resolution service. The ISI was established in 2013 to deal with personal insolvency and is under the remit of the Department of Justice and Equality. The ISI aims to return people to solvency and full participation in social and economic activity. It offers a range of debt solutions, including a regulated network of qualified professionals who can help a person to reach a permanent debt solution with his or her creditor. The ISI encourages anyone with serious debt issues, including those impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, to visit its dedicated website, backontrack.ie.

My focus, and that of the Government, is to ensure that as many households as possible remain in their homes. I encourage borrowers to engage with Abhaile, the national mortgage arrears resolution service, which is available free of charge to the borrower. The unique element of Abhaile is that it brings together for the first time the full range of supports and services required by borrowers in home mortgage arrears. A dedicated adviser will work with the borrower and the lender to find the best solution for their particular circumstances.

On mortgage arrears, the co-ordinated forbearance actions of the banking and non-banking sectors announced by the Minister for Finance on 18 March 2020, and agreed to by the members of the Banking and Payments Federation of Ireland and the Central Bank, have provided essential support to personal and business customers impacted by Covid-19. The co-ordinated approach adopted by the banking and non-banking sectors is welcome. These forbearance measures have primarily involved payment breaks for households and SME customers. The importance of these supports is illustrated by the agreement to payment breaks for 80,000 mortgage customers and 35,800 SME customers. With the initial three-month payment breaks issued in mid-March, lenders are undertaking a process of engagement with those who have availed of the break and those customers are being contacted about their options when the payment break ends. These include a payment break extension of up to three months for those who continue to be directly impacted by the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic. The forbearance approach reflects the wider Government approach of ensuring that all supports, whether tax measures, public expenditure programmes or lender forbearance, are focused on those who have experienced significant income shocks. These levels of support are maximised and scarce resources allocated to those most in need.

The Department has introduced three and six-month payment breaks for holders of the Rebuilding Ireland home loan or other local authority mortgages. The breaks are available through local authorities and borrowers are not charged interest for the period of their payment break. In addition, the Department has just written to all local authorities highlighting that Rebuilding Ireland home loan applications should continue to be processed during the Covid-19 pandemic. Applicants of the temporary wage subsidy scheme can apply based on their pre-Covid income and will be given time post Covid to demonstrate that their earnings have returned to pre-Covid levels. If the applicant's earnings do not return to pre-Covid levels, the application can be reassessed based on the actual level of post-Covid income achieved.

In the case of mortgage-to-rent mortgage holders, for whom no alternative is available, a scheme is already in place for borrowers of commercial lending institutions, which is overseen by the Department. The scheme is targeted at borrowers in long-term mortgage arrears whose mortgage has been deemed unsustainable by their lender under the mortgage arrears resolution process, as provided for under the Central Bank's code of conduct on mortgage arrears. Under the scheme, mortgage holders who are eligible for social housing can transfer the ownership of their home to an approved housing body or the private company, Home for Life, and remain in their home as social-housing tenants, paying affordable rent assessed in accordance with their means. Following a review of the mortgage-to-rent scheme in February 2017, a range of revisions was made to the terms and conditions of the scheme to widen eligibility and ensure greater take-up. In addition, new structures and arrangements have been put in place to encourage a greater number of entities to take part in the scheme and enable it to operate at scale. One threat to the overall viability of the scheme is the lack of borrower engagement with lenders. The Department is working closely with the Abhaile service, as well as the ISI and MABS, to ensure that borrowers who could benefit from the mortgage-to-rent scheme are aware of the benefits and how to access it.

The Government is committed to ensuring that the full range of options is available to distressed borrowers, including keeping as many people as possible in their own homes, and has included a commitment to strengthening the mortgage-to-rent scheme in the programme for Government. The programme for Government is committed to delivering at least 50,000 social homes over the coming five years. It is an urgent priority to address critical housing supply and demand issues, housing delivery and, in particular, the need for social and affordable housing. I am keen to ensure we lose no time or momentum in doing this. Last year, more than 10,000 social homes were delivered nationwide and we want to build on that in future.

I am aware that the past few months have been exceptionally challenging for all stakeholders involved in housing, from those involved in delivery right through to those managing the risks associated with vulnerable groups. Covid-19 has presented challenges to the country but it has also demonstrated the clear resolve of the Government and the need to back the people of Ireland. Our key goal is to get as many people as we can back working in a safe manner as soon as we can to allow them to meet their housing needs independently. We want to help people to help themselves but we recognise that not everybody is able to meet his or her own housing needs.

I sincerely thank the Labour Party for tabling this motion and my fellow Deputies for their thoughtful input. I look forward to working with them in the coming term on our shared objective of providing secure, quality housing for all who need it.

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