Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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141. To ask the Minister for Finance the protections available to a residential mortgage holder whose loan is owned by a regulated entity which are not available where the loan is owned by a non-regulated entity; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14148/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am not aware of any protections that a residential mortgage holder has where their loan is owned by a regulated entity which would not be available where the loan is owned by a non-regulated entity.

The Consumer Protection (Regulation of Credit Servicing Firms) Act, 2015 was introduced to fill the consumer protection gap where loans were sold by the original lender to an unregulated firm. The 2015 Act introduced a regulatory regime for a new type of entity called a 'credit servicing firm'. Credit Servicing Firms are now subject to the provisions of Irish financial services law that apply to 'regulated financial service providers'. This ensures that relevant borrowers, whose loans are sold to third parties, maintain the same regulatory protections they had prior to the sale, including under the various statutory codes.

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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142. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of residential mortgages owned by non-bank lenders, by institution, by regulated entity, by non-regulated entity; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14149/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I have been informed by the Central Bank of Ireland that, for confidentiality reasons, it is not in a position to provide this information by institution.

The Deputy will be aware from my reply to his question 13438 earlier this week that the total number of mortgage accounts owned by non-banks for Principal Dwelling House and Buy to Let combined was 47,402 at end-2015.