Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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147. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the extent to which she expects mortgage interest support to remain in place in support of qualifying applicants; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26271/13]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Mortgage interest supplement provides short-term income support to eligible people who are unable to meet their mortgage interest repayments in respect of a house which is their sole place of residence. There are approximately 13,000 mortgage interest supplement recipients for which the Government has provided €42 million for in 2013. The Department's review of the administrative, policy and legal aspects of the mortgage interest supplement scheme was published in July 2010 in conjunction with the interim report of the Mortgage Arrears and Personal Debt Review Group. The final report of the Mortgage Arrears and Personal Debt Review Group was published in November 2010. The overarching theme was that mortgage interest supplement is not an appropriate long term support and should become a time-bound payment. The Inter-Departmental Mortgage Arrears Working Group (Keane Group) recommended that an appropriate exit strategy should be formulated for the mortgage interest supplement recipient.

In terms of exit strategy, the Group recommended the establishment of two "mortgage to rent" schemes for eligible households to access social housing supports. Both of these schemes are to be established using the two principal sources of housing finance streams in operation within the State, approved housing bodies (voluntary housing associations) and mortgage service providers. The Department is engaging with officials in the Housing Agency regarding the mortgage-to-rent scheme, introduced in 2012, in regards to suitable exit strategies for customers experiencing mortgage difficulties who are in receipt of mortgage interest supplement. Any decision to time-bound the mortgage interest supplement must be taken within a budgetary context and within the wider context of mortgage resolution policy.