Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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251. To ask the Minister for Finance the reason a mortgage in arrears which is sold by a regulated to an unregulated entity no longer appears in the quarterly statistics published by the Central Bank of Ireland; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31308/14]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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252. To ask the Minister for Finance if mortgage accounts with Irish Bank Resolution Corporation which have been sold to third parties and are in arrears will continue to appear in the quarterly Central Bank of Ireland arrears statistics; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31309/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 251 and 252 together.

The Central Bank's latest 'Residential Mortgage Arrears and Repossessions Statistics' publication for the end of Q1 2014 (), shows that the number of mortgage accounts for principal dwelling houses (PDH) in arrears, fell for the third consecutive quarter.  A total of 132,217 PDH accounts were in arrears at end March 2014, a decline of 3.2 per cent relative to end Q4 2013 and that, for primary dwelling mortgage accounts of more than 90 days in arrears, there was a decline of 3.5% over the quarter.   The Central Bank has advised that all IBRC mortgage loans are included in its quarterly statistics publications.

Separately from Central Bank quarterly reports, a monthly reporting regime on mortgage restructures and arrears for the six main banks covered by the Central Bank's Mortgage Arrears Resolution Targets (MART) has been put in place by my Department.  The latest publication, with data to the end of May, shows that the number of PDH mortgage accounts in arrears of greater than 90 days has fallen by 4,716 accounts when compared to the end of Q1 2014 while the overall number of PDH mortgage arrears has fallen by 5,108 accounts in the same period.

The Central Bank has informed me that it is precluded from releasing statistics from which individual entities or transactions can be identified. To date, it has not been possible to include sales of mortgage loans without breaching confidentiality. The Central Bank is aware of the impact of asset transfers on overall trends and it is putting measures in place to address this, while safeguarding confidentiality. The Central Bank has advised that its mortgage arrears data will be adjusted in upcoming releases to include all Irish resident mortgages (on banks' books or held by third parties).