Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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18. To ask the Minister for Finance his plans to assist struggling mortgage holders who want to retain their home; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17380/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Government has put in place a broad strategy to address the problem of mortgage arrears and family home repossessions. This has included an extensive suite of interventions designed to address the problem including specific Central Bank targets for the banks through the Mortgage Arrears Resolution Targets (MART), the Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears (CCMA), extensive recasting of the personal insolvency legislation, the provision of advice through Department of Social Protection-led initiatives and the mortgage to rent scheme which is designed to assist borrowers in an unsustainable mortgage position to remain in their homes through the involvement of social housing agencies.

The CCMA sets out requirements for mortgage lenders dealing with borrowers facing or in mortgage arrears on their primary residence and provides a strong consumer protection framework to ensure that borrowers struggling to keep up mortgage repayments are treated in a fair and transparent manner by their lender, and that long term resolution is sought by lenders with each of their borrowers.  The CCMA provides that a lender may only commence legal proceedings for repossession where the lender has made every reasonable effort to agree an alternative repayment arrangement with the borrower or his/her nominated representative, and where the specific timeframes set out in the CCMA have been adhered to, or where the borrower has been classified as not co-operating.  

Where a borrower engages with his lender, a restructure arrangement to address his/her mortgage arrears situation,  is agreed in the majority of cases.  The Central Bank's most recent quarterly release on Residential Mortgage arrears and Repossessions (Q4 2014) indicates that almost 115,000 restructure arrangements have been put in place.

Where a mortgage in arrears is deemed to be unsustainable by the lender the mortgage to rent scheme, administered by my colleague, Alan Kelly, TD, Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government may be a viable alternative which will keep families in their family home.

The effective management of the mortgage arrears issue is an area that remains under continuous review.  More and concerted action can be undertaken by the banks to assist customers in arrears.  As the Deputy is aware the Taoiseach has previously announced that the Government is considering a range of options to support the existing framework and to improve the uptake of personal insolvency solutions.  Given the importance of the issue, his Department is co-ordinating the response across the various Government Departments and agencies and I anticipate that a detailed announcement will be forthcoming shortly.