Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein)
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Question 926: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government when he expects the reviewed guidance for local authorities on mortgage arrears, including local authority mortgages for shared ownership, will be finalised; and when the guide will be made public. [19446/12]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Where any borrower, either from a local authority or from a private financial institution, is facing difficulties in meeting mortgage repayments, they should engage proactively and constructively with the lender to seek to achieve an agreed solution. The services of the Money Advice and Budgeting Service are also available to such borrowers and support is available through the Supplementary Welfare Allowance Scheme.

Section 34 of Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 provides local authorities with powers to deal flexibly with distressed borrowers. My Department issued comprehensive guidance to local authorities on the treatment of mortgage arrears, including local authority mortgages for shared ownership transactions, in March 2010. That guidance was closely based on the Central Bank's first statutory Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears to ensure that cases of local authority mortgage arrears are handled in a manner that is sympathetic to the needs of the particular household, while also protecting the position of the local authority concerned.

To reflect the content of the Central Bank's revised Code of Conduct and provide a further suite of options for the sympathetic treatment of mortgage arrears by local authorities my Department is currently preparing updated guidance to local authorities in consultation with the City and County Managers Association. I anticipate that this guidance will be made available to local authorities before the summer recess.