Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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116. To ask the Minister for Finance when the central credit register will be fully operational; the steps taken in its implementation; the reason for the delay; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45822/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am advised by the Central Bank of Ireland that it plans to have a Central Credit Register (CCR) solution in place by mid-2016.

To date, the Central Bank has:

- Signed contracts with CRIF Ireland Limited in February 2015 to establish and operate the CCR on its behalf;

- Progressed a design stage to specify the detailed data requirements  and conducted a data survey with representative lenders;

- Published a Consultation Paper in April 2015 seeking views on key issues, with 19 responses received by the closing date of 12 June (feedback on this will be published in the coming months);

- Progressed a privacy impact assessment to ensure the appropriate controls are in place to safeguard personal data across the end to end processes, and

- Commenced consultations with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner on draft regulations to be made under the Credit Reporting Act 2013.

Work is continuing on finalising the CCR solution design.  The take on of data will be implemented on a phased basis, with Phase 1 focusing on lending to consumers and Phase 2 focusing on lending to businesses.

It is expected that data submissions by lenders will commence in late 2016, but the final deadline will be influenced by the scale of the technical and operational changes to be implemented by lenders. Enquiries by lenders against the CCR data are likely to commence in early 2017 when data quality has been assured. Borrowers will be entitled to access their own credit reports at that time also.  It should be noted that the provision of the CCR is a significant task and that the commencement of full operations will depend on data submissions from over 500 lenders.