Tom Fleming (Kerry South, Independent)
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208. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will review local authority home loans taken out in the 1970s and 1980s at exorbitant interest rates which persons are still paying back at a set rate and for which they never received an opportunity to change to a variable rate; if he will grant an amnesty to these persons and terminate the loans as they have paid the amounts multiple times over; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44485/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I assume that the Question refers to income-related loans that were advanced by individual local authorities to individual borrowersbetween 1982 and May 1986, the associated funds for which were advanced to local authorities by the Housing Finance Agency (HFA).A total of €403m was advanced by local authorities under the income-related loan scheme and 15,571 mortgages were made available to borrowers. The most recent information sourced from local authorities refers to amounts at 30 June 2015, at which point 111 of these loans were still active and outstanding with a corresponding total loan balance of €4.8m.

Following a review of the income-related loan scheme, the Board of the HFA approved the following initiatives to be implemented with effect from 1 July 2015 with the aim of making these loans more affordable for the borrower and to help secure a pathway to full home ownership. From 1 July 2015, inflation was eliminated on these loans and the variable rate on income-related loans was reduced to bring it in line with the standard variable mortgage rate offered by local authorities.

No new loans have issued under this Scheme since 1986 and there are no plans to alter this position. Individual local authorities administer these loans and deal directly with borrowers. I would advise any local authority borrower who is having difficulty meeting their loan repayments to contact their local authority. To assist local authorities in dealing with borrowers in financial distress, my Department issued revised guidelines for dealing with mortgage arrears within the local authority sector in June 2014. Dealing with Mortgage Arrears – A Guide for Local Authorities is available on my Department’s website by clicking on the following link:.