Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Finance the position regarding the application by all the banks of the additional mortgage interest relief for a certain category of homeowners as provided for in Finance Act 2012; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [40805/12]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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This is a matter for the Revenue Commissioners who are responsible for the administration of mortgage interest relief through the tax relief at source [TRS] system. The 30% rate of mortgage interest relief for those who took out their first qualifying home loan between 2004 and 2008 came into effect with the enactment of the Finance Bill at the end of March. The regulations provide for the granting of the relief due to the borrower by the lender within the tax year. The mortgage lenders provide mortgage interest relief at source to relevant mortgage holders, which is facilitated by on-going electronic data file transfers between Revenue and each of the 132 individual qualifying lenders. To apply the new 30% rate, specific technology developments were required to Revenue’s and to each of the lenders’ computer systems. Revenue's systems were upgraded to implement the 30% rate last December and Revenue has since been communicating with the various lenders in regard to their IT enhancements, but the speed of upgrading has not been uniform across all lenders. To date, the IT upgrades required to give effect to the 30% rate have been completed by all but one of the lenders and these lenders have either implemented the rate or will do so with effect from next month.

Revenue is currently in direct contact with the remaining lender to ensure that the additional 5% due to borrowers is paid within the current year and applied retrospectively. Revenue has received commitment from the lender that the rate will be implemented within the current tax year.

In January, as an interim relieving measure, Revenue advised lenders to grant tax relief at the rate of 25% to those entitled to the new 30% rate of relief, given that the 25% rate was already a feature of the first time buyer mortgage interest relief regime and was not dependent on new IT upgrades taking place.