Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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60. To ask the Minister for Finance the measures he is taking to liaise with the Central Bank of Ireland regarding access to mortgages for first-time buyers; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4916/16]

Tommy Broughan (Dublin Bay North, Independent)
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61. To ask the Minister for Finance the measures he is taking to liaise with the Central Bank of Ireland regarding access to mortgages for buyers who previously held mortgages which were distressed and or are in negative equity; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4917/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 60 and 61 together.

In terms of overall policy, the Central Bank of Ireland has a key role in maintaining and safeguarding financial stability.  In that context, the Bank has put in place macro-prudential measures for new residential mortgage lending.  These measures apply proportionate loan-to-value (LTV) and loan-to-income (LTI) limits to mortgage lending by regulated financial service providers in the Irish market.  The key objective of these measures is to increase the resilience of the banking and household sectors to the housing sector and to reduce the risk of bank credit and house price spirals from developing in the future.

The Central Bank is independent in the formulation and implementation of these macro prudential measures.  However, in formulating these rules the Central Bank had regard to the particular position of first time buyers and to households who were having difficulty with their existing mortgage.  For example, for first time buyers of properties valued over €220,000, a 90 per cent LTV limit applies on the first €220,000 value of a property and an 80 per cent LTV limit applies on any value of the property thereafter; furthermore, the LTV limits do not apply to housing loans entered into in order to address arrears or pre-arrears and, in addition, housing loans for borrowers in negative equity who wish to obtain a mortgage for a new property are not in the scope of the LTV limits.  Also the LTI limits also do not apply to housing loans entered into in order to address arrears or pre-arrears.

 The Central Bank will conduct a review of the particular macro prudential measures adopted last year, and this is expected to be published by November.  This review will be based on an analysis of the evidence provided by data on the first year of the operation of the rules, while taking into account other factors that may have influenced the mortgage market during this period.  In that context the Governor of the Central Bank has stated that the Central Bank is open to tightening or loosening the calibration of these rules in response to the evidence but also referenced that the value of stability in a rules-based framework means that the evidence threshold to justify adjustments to these rules is significant.