Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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68. To ask the Minister for Finance the total number of home owners affected by the sale of loan books to regulated and-or unregulated third parties; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42363/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Central Bank does not publish data on this matter due to confidentiality reasons. Based on information in the public domain, however, a transaction worth approximately €223 million took place between two regulated entities and this is estimated to cover between 1,000 and 2,000 mortgages. With regard to unregulated entities, information from company announcements in the public domain would suggest that between 8,000 and 10,000 mortgages in total have been sold to unregulated entities in recent years.

As Minister for Finance, I am committed to bringing forward legislation that protects borrowers whose loans are sold to unregulated entities. The Government has reiterated this commitment on several occasions. In July and August of this year, my Department ran a public consultation seeking views on its proposed legislation to protect consumers whose loans are sold to unregulated entities.

The Department of Finance has now received 19 submissions from a range of respondents from the financial services industry, consumer groups, public representatives and individuals and other stakeholders. These have now been published on the Department's website at .

Officials in my Department have carefully considered the submissions and are working with the Office of the Attorney General to progress this legislation. It is anticipated that it will be published by the end of this year.

As stated in the public consultation document, the proposed legislation is not retrospective. However, it is intended to apply to all loans, regardless of when they were acquired, thus capturing entities which have already purchased loan books.