Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)
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300. To ask the Minister for Finance if the Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Bill 2015 will be applied retrospectively for customers in current mortgage arrears; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [21414/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The legislation will apply to all loans as defined, regardless of when they were acquired, thus capturing loan books that have already been sold. A similar approach was used in 2013 in relation to debt management firms. Also, when the requirement for a retail credit firm authorisation was itself introduced in 2007, existing non-deposit taking lenders (which up to then did not require authorisation from the Central Bank) had to get an authorisation from the Central Bank in order to continue their business. The Bill has transitional provisions to allow existing firms seek and obtain authorisation from the Central Bank while continuing to do business.

The issue of retrospective legislation was referred to at the pre-legislative scrutiny hearing on 3^rdDecember which is available on the Oireachtas website.  Committee Stage of the Bill was taken on 27 May and the Bill as amended in the Select sub-Committee on Finance is available on the Oireachtas website. Report Stage is expected to be taken on 17 June.

Once the Bill is enacted, credit servicing will become a regulated activity and firms undertaking credit servicing will be subject to all Central Bank Codes including the Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears.