Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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357. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide a breakdown by housing body of local authority mortgages issued, the number in arrears, the number in arrears of more than 90 days, more than 180 days, and over a year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44454/13]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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Local authorities have long provided housing loans to less affluent members of society. Section 34 of the Housing (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2009 provides local authorities with powers to deal flexibly with distressed borrowers, and they have demonstrated sensitivity over the years in this regard. My Department has issued guidelines to local authorities, based upon the Central Bank's Code of Conduct, which continue the tradition of handling arrears in a manner sympathetic to the needs of the particular household, while also protecting the position of the local authority concerned.

In particular, the introduction of a Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process (MARP), which closely mirrors the suite of options available in the commercial sector, presents borrowers in difficulty with a range of alternative payment options, which can be accessed to ease the particular circumstances of each case. These include, in cases of certain unsustainable mortgages, the facility of mortgage-to-rent. Local authorities have been restructuring loans for some time using their own internal practices. The introduction of these revised guidelines standardises the approach across the whole sector, introduces a systematic structure to this area and provides borrowers with a transparent and accessible model for arrears resolution.

The most up-to-date data held by my Department covers the second quarter of 2013, and indicates that there were 20,277 live housing loans on the books of the local authorities. Of these, 6,275 were in arrears over 90 days or more, 1, 307 were over 90 days in arrears but not yet over 180 days in arrears, with the balance of 4,968 being over 180 days in arrears. My Department does not hold data for loans in arrears in excess of a year.

The following table provides the breakdown on a local authority basis of the data requested.

City Councils

Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour)
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358. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide a breakdown by local authority housing body of the total number of mortgages currently outstanding under the affordable housing scheme, and of those mortgages, the total number that are in arrears in each local authority, the number in arrears of over 90 days, over 180 days, and over a year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44455/13]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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My Department does not collect data on shared ownership loans arrears specifically on a regular basis, but gathers housing loans arrears data generically on a quarterly basis. Quarterly housing loans arrears data are published on my Department's website .