Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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189. To ask the Minister for Finance the help there is for homeowners who have large mortgages and who are finding it financially difficult to balance their books; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44239/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Government has developed a comprehensive cross-Departmental strategy in response to the difficulties posed by excessive personal indebtedness. A number of key measures have been advanced in this regard, including:

1. Significant reforms to personal insolvency legislation and the establishment of the Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI), to provide more accessible and flexible statutory frameworks for people with unsustainable personal and mortgage debt to address their position;

2. The launch last month of the 'Back on Track' Information Campaign for People in debt by ISI.  The Back on Track initiative was developed following research and aims to increase the take-up of the ISI services by people in debt through the elimination of ISI application fees up to end 2015 and the introduction of a payment to Personal Insolvency Practitioners, where a credible insolvency arrangement is rejected by creditors.  The ISI has launched a country-wide information campaign to publicise this service;

3. The Money Advice and Budgeting Service, (MABS), offers a free service to consumers facing financial difficulties or who feel they are in danger of facing difficulties;

4. The Central Bank's Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears (CCMA) contains important protections for co-operating mortgage holders experiencing genuine difficulty with a mortgage secured on a primary residence and imposes requirements on lenders to:-

- Step 1: Communicate with borrower;

- Step 2: Gather financial information;

- Step 3: Assess the borrowers circumstances; and

- Step 4: Propose a resolution.

If a borrower is not happy with the way that their lender is dealing with them or if they believe they are not complying with the CCMA, the borrower can make a complaint to their lender.

Borrowers can also make an appeal to the lender's Appeals Board if they are not happy with the alternative repayment arrangement offered or if they believe they have been wrongly classified as not co-operating.

If the borrower is not happy with the outcome of the appeal/complaint made to the lender they can refer the matter to the Financial Services Ombudsman (FSO). Further information on how to make a complaint to the FSO is available at .

In addition to the above provisions, the Government is implementing a number of initiatives through the Action Plan for Jobs process, which will help people out of unemployment and back into the workforce, which will over time enable them to address their financial difficulties.

I would like to reassure the Deputy that the Government is very much aware of the difficulties facing those householders and individuals in difficulty meeting their mortgage repayments and it has acted decisively through the introduction of the above measures to tackle the issue of personal indebtedness in a comprehensive and practical manner.  The Government will continue to keep the issue of personal indebtedness under review through the Cabinet sub-Committee structure.