Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 72: To ask the Minister for Finance if he will reply to a matter (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14423/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware, on 25th February 2010, I informed the Government of my proposals regarding expanding the membership of the Interdepartmental Mortgage Arrears Group, under the Chairmanship of Mr. Hugh Cooney who is an insolvency accountant. The revamped Group has commenced its work, having met twice since being established, and has finalised its Terms of Reference which I have approved and incorporated into the supplementary documentation for my Statement on Banking which I delivered to this House on 30 March 2010. In general, the terms of reference reflect the commitments made by the Government both in the Renewed Programme for Government and in subsequent Government decisions relating to the issues of mortgage arrears and personal debt.

I understand that the Group will focus initially on exploring the feasibility of a range of possible options for improving the level of mortgage support to homeowners in difficulty. Proposals will be based on factual information gathered by the Group and will take into account the findings of existing reports and mortgage support schemes in operation in other jurisdictions. I expect that these recommendations will be made to me on a rolling basis as the Group progresses with its findings and that a final report on this phase of the review will be ready by end June 2010. The Group will then continue to address the issues of personal debt with regard to the outcome of the ongoing deliberations by the Law Reform Commission on personal debt.