Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 110: To ask the Minister for Finance the progress that has been made in the matter of new provisions to assist persons who through no fault of their own have fallen into arrears and who may find themselves in danger of repossession; if he intends to introduce measures as promised during the passage of the National Asset Management Agency legislation in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17556/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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The Renewed Program for Government which was published in October 2009 sets out the Government's priorities in relation to the issues facing families having difficulties with their mortgage repayments and personal indebtedness under the headings Protecting the Family Home and Helping Those in Debt. I have referred to the Government's intentions in this regard on many occasions in this House, including during the passage of the National Asset Management Agency legislation as referred to by the Deputy.

In my Budget speech in December the Government refocused mortgage interest relief on those who bought their homes at the peak of the market, many of whom find themselves in negative equity. Where a homeowner's entitlement to mortgage interest relief would expire in 2010 or after, they will now continue to receive it up to the end of 2017. Since my Budget speech, I wrote to the Financial Regulator requesting that consideration be given to extending the moratorium on mortgage arrears from 6 months to 12 months for all mortgage lenders. On 5 February, the Financial Regulator announced that with effect from 17 February, the Statutory Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears has been amended to require that a regulated firm must wait at least 12 months from the time arrears first arise before applying to the courts to commence enforcement of any legal action on repossession of a borrower's primary residence.

The Deputy will be aware that in February this year, I informed the Government of my proposals regarding expanding the membership of the Interdepartmental Mortgage Arrears Group, under the Chairmanship of Mr. Hugh Cooney. The revamped Group has commenced its work, having met on several occasions 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.

The Group is initially exploring the feasibility of a range of possible options for improving the level of mortgage support to homeowners in difficulty. I understand that 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. It is important to remember that established support measures remain in place including the Mortgage Interest Subsidy Scheme, helping over 15,000 home owners, and the services provided by the Money Advice Budgeting Services.

It is important to point out that historically, repossessions in Ireland have been low and a comparison of repossession figures for Irish Banking Federation members who are the mainstream lenders, not including subprime, with figures from the UK Council of Mortgage lenders indicates UK repossession rates per 100,000 mortgages at thirty times those in Ireland. For the year 2009, total repossessions of home owners by legal process for those institutions covered under the Bank Guarantee Scheme was 28.

As I have stated on many occasions in this House, it is a priority of the Government to ensure that as far as possible that difficulties in relation to mortgage arrears do not result in legal proceedings for home repossession. Home repossession should be and generally has been the last resort for the lender. Indeed the Government is satisfied that mainstream mortgage lenders have adopted a responsible position towards their customers.