Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 122: To ask the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to the difficulties faced by young couples who bought apartments in recent years that are now too small because they are now raising children; if his further attention has been drawn to the fact that these couples are unable to move to a larger property because they are in severe negative equity; his plans to allow families in this situation to carry their negative equity with them into their next mortgage on a larger property; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1449/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am aware of the difficulties that the Deputy refers to in his question. In that regard, the Central Bank has advised me that they wrote to all mortgage lenders to ascertain whether they were offering, or intended to offer, a mortgage product that would allow home owners to sell their existing home and transfer the negative equity portion of the original loan to the new loan. In response to the Central Bank's letter, only a small number of mortgage lenders said that they would consider offering such a facility. A trial period commenced in mid-2011 and was due to be assessed by the Central Bank and the institutions involved before the end of 2011. However, the low level of activity made it difficult to conduct a meaningful review at the end of 2011. Therefore, the proposed review will not take place until later this year.

Any institution offering such a mortgage facility may do so only in accordance with criteria agreed with the Central Bank. In the circumstances, any further consideration of introducing this facility may only be undertaken on completion of the Central Bank's review.