Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Finance the number of residential mortgages that were subject to write-down by covered banks in the period 2008 to 2012; the amount of balances written off; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4549/13]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be aware write-downs of residential mortgages are agreed on a case by case basis and are not disclosed by the covered banks. However the Deputy will find information on the accounting write-offs of the covered banks in their annual and interim reports. The Deputy should not equate the level of accounting write-offs with actual write-downs of residential mortgages agreed with customers. I have been provided with the following responses from each of the covered banks.

Bank of Ireland

I am informed by Bank of Ireland that it has provided comprehensive residential mortgage disclosure in its previous annual and interim reports. Specific references to mortgage amounts written off are provided on the following pages of the annual/interim reports:

Bank of Ireland notes that the split of mortgage amounts written off between the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom is not historically provided but Bank of Ireland gave an incremental disclosure to the interim report for June 2012 in answer to PQ 51262/12 on 20 November 2012 as follows:

“Consistent with its accounting policies, the Group only writes off debt once all avenues to recover the loans have been exhausted. In the case of Residential Mortgages in the Republic of Ireland, this happens after the property has been repossessed / sold and all other means of recovering any residual amount owing have been exhausted. As an additional disclosure to its Interim accounts, the Group now advises that it recorded an accounting write off amounting to €2.3 million of its impairment provisions in respect of Residential Mortgages in the Republic of Ireland in the six months ended 30 June 2012.”

AIB

I have been informed by AIB that it makes detailed disclosures in respect of its mortgage portfolio on a semi-annual basis as part of its regulatory reporting requirements. The relevant data in respect of AIB’s mortgage books as of June 2012 can be found on pages 30-35 of AIB’s Half Yearly Financial Report 2012. Disclosures for year end 2010 and 2011 can be found on pages 112 – 122 of AIB’s Annual Financial Report 2011 while information for 2008 and 2009 is on pages 196 – 205 of AIB’s Annual Financial Report 2009. These reports are available on AIB’s website at www.aibgroup.com/investorrelations or by clicking on the following link: http://www.aib.ie/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=AIB_Investor_Relations/Miscellaneous/ir_article_printer&c=AIB_Article&cid=1096576948103&channel=IRFP

Further disclosures on Provisions for impairment of loans and receivables are contained in note 32 (page 313) of AIB's Annual Financial Report 2011 which shows a write-off on Residential mortgages of €32 million in 2011 and €36 million in 2010. Please note that the "amounts written off" number refers to provisions rather than actual loan amounts written off for customers in difficulty in line with our accounting policies (please see page 239). The comparable information is contained on page 93 of AIB's Half Yearly Report 2012 and page 203 of AIB's Annual Financial Report 2009, which shows a write-off of €16 million on Residential mortgages for H1 2012, €13 million in 2009 and €0 million in 2008.

Permanent TSB

Permanent TSB provides extensive disclosure on its Residential mortgage portfolio in its annual and interim accounts. The following table sets out the location of the relevant information in the accounts:

Permanent TSB advises that write-downs are agreed with customers only at the end of a process where other options are not sustainable and customers have engaged fully with the bank.

IBRC

Detailed information in relation to the Bank’s financial performance, including information on provisioning, is published semi-annually in the Bank’s interim report and annual report and accounts. The Bank’s 2011 Annual Report, pages 169-173, provides detailed disclosure on the Bank’s residential mortgage portfolio. More recent information can be found in the Bank’s Interim Report 2012, page 72. It is Bank policy not to publish any additional confidential commercially sensitive financial information which could potentially have a detrimental impact on asset recovery. The Bank is scheduled to publish its 2012 Annual Report on 28 March 2013.