Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. Many of these individuals have been in touch with me directly as well and a number of Oireachtas colleagues have raised this issue with me. It is an issue of which I am very conscious. I recognise that the rate that many of these mortgage holders would have been on prior to the changes in the ECB interest rate would have been 4% or 4.5% but all of the ECB increases have been passed on in full. That has brought many of them to rates that are at, approaching, or above 7%. That has made life really difficult for many of these people.

I had my first meeting today with the Governor of the Central Bank and I raised this issue with him directly. My Department has also written to the Central Bank in relation to its supervisory and consumer protection functions, drawing its attention to this issue and the impact that interest rates of this kind will potentially have on many of these people. I understand that the Governor will appear before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance tomorrow and I am sure Deputy Doherty and other colleagues will be raising this specific issue with him.

Many of these customers cannot switch their mortgage provider. That said, the point should be made that there may well be some people whose mortgages are no longer classified as non-performing exposure mortgages and who potentially could go back to the mainstream bank lenders. That may be an option for some of these people but I acknowledge that it is not an option for all of them. It is an issue of concern which is why I raised it directly with the Governor of the Central Bank and why my Department wrote to the Central Bank bringing this matter to its attention and asking it to consider what can be done within the suite of supervisory and consumer protection powers of the bank.

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