Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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88. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality the number of applications there were for legal aid for home repossession or home eviction cases in each of the years 2011 to 2016 to date; and the number of these that were successful in obtaining free legal aid. [33423/16]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy is aware, the Government is committed to providing assistance to persons who may be in danger of losing their home. Last month I launched Abhaile, the Government’s Mortgage Arrears Resolution Service. Under this scheme, free legal advice is available to insolvent borrowers who are in danger of losing their family home. 263 people have been referred to this free legal advice under this scheme since it began. In addition the Board has arranged for a duty solicitor to be present at every repossession list at county registrars’ courts to assist insolvent borrowers who do not have legal representation for such proceedings.

This is a new additional service and separate to the traditional provision of civil legal aid which is subject to the application of a merits test under section 24 and section 28(2) of the Civil Legal Aid Act 1995. These criteria include whether the applicant is reasonably likely to be successful in the proceedings, assuming that the facts put forward by him or her in relation to the proceedings are proved before the court or tribunal concerned. In many repossession cases the applicant is unlikely to have any prospect of success as the lender will usually be entitled to orders for possession and sale in circumstances where the mortgage is valid and is in arrears. In such circumstances the applicant is unlikely to meet the criteria for granting civil legal aid.

The Deputy should note that proceedings for ejectment are not normally within the scope of civil legal aid by virtue of section 28(9) (a) (ii) of the Civil Legal Aid Act 1995, save where a local authority is seeking to exclude a person from social housing or where certain exemptions to this rule apply.

The number of applications for legal aid and legal aid certificates granted for repossession or ejectment from 2013 to 2016 (to date) are as set out in the following table.

Data of this nature is not available for the years 2011 and 2012. In those years, the Legal Aid Board provided services in relation to debt cases as follows:

I am informed that it is not possible to identify how many of these debt cases involved repossession of a person’s home.

The Deputy will also be aware of Rebuilding Ireland – Action Plan for Housing and Homelessness, announced by my colleague the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government during the summer, and the measures it contains in relation to homelessness, social housing, and improving the private rental sector.