Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 122: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the breakdown of the different interest rates being charged to local authority tenants who are buying out their home from the State; the total value of and the number of loans at each interest rate; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3925/05]

Noel Ahern (Dublin North West, Fianna Fail)
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The most recent information on the total number of tenant purchase loans was contained in the 2002 census of population. The census indicated that overall there were 44,783 homes being purchased from local authorities. Information on the total value of such loans or a breakdown by interest rate is not available in my Department.

Tenant purchasers are not obliged by the terms of the scheme to take out a mortgage from local authorities. Furthermore, those with fixed rate local authority loans are free to redeem without penalty and refinance in the private sector. My Department does not have full information on the value or number of these private sector loans and consequently is not in a position to supply the detailed information sought in the question.

However, as local authorities generally finance housing loans through borrowings from the Housing Finance Agency, HFA, the data on the outstanding loans from the HFA to local authorities given in the table below provides a good indication of the likely breakdown of loans at different interest rates. In this regard, the data indicate that the vast bulk of loans are at variable interest rates. The actual number of loans is not available as this local authority information is not aggregated at national level.

A summary of the position in relation to tenant purchase loans funded by the Housing Finance Agency is set out in the following table.

The current local authority tenant purchase mortgage interest rates are 2.95% variable and 4.45% for the five year fixed, which represent competitive rates of lending.

Prior to December 1987 when variable rates were introduced, certain fixed interest rate loans issued by local authorities would have carried rates in excess of the levels indicated in the above table. These fixed interest rates reflect the cost of the long-term funds involved.