Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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183. To ask the Minister for Finance if he has requested the Central Bank to procure an independent assessment of the arrears and negative equity loan books of the banks as per the recent programme for Government commitment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16355/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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The Deputy will be aware that the Central Bank has an ongoing role in monitoring the level of arrears and negative equity on mortgage and other loan assets.  The Programme for a Partnership Government contains a range of commitments in the broad housing and banking area and my Department regularly engages with the Central Bank on all the Programme for Government Commitments which will impact on the Central Bank and its role in relation to mortgages.

In this context, the Central Bank last year produced a report on mortgage arrears following my request to the Governor.  This report provides a detailed assessment of mortgage arrears in banks and non-bank entities and includes analysis on mortgage restructuring activity and the range of solutions offered that may affect borrowers' capacity to remain in their primary residence.  This report was published on 16th December 2016 and is available on . The report notes that progress on mortgage arrears is well established and clearly moving in the right direction.  In addition, the Central Bank considers the range of restructures offered by banks to be broadly appropriate in balancing consumer protection imperatives, and maintaining a mortgage market for all borrowers, and a functioning banking system.

Furthermore, the Central Bank publishes quarterly statistics on Residential Mortgage Arrears and Repossessions.  In addition, the Central Bank's Household Credit Market Report contains data on negative equity.  The latest report for the second half of 2016 is available at and table 7 (Page 20) in the report presents the percentage of loans in default and in negative equity. The data in the Household Credit Market Report are for 2015 and do not reflect changes to loan balances and house prices since December 2015.  The Central Bank estimates that 15 per cent of PDH loans  and 26 per cent of BTL loans were in negative equity at end December 2015 of which 10 per cent of PDH and 14 per cent of BTL loans were deemed to be performing. 

The Deputy should also be aware of the most recent Central Bank Residential Mortgage Arrears and Repossessions quarterly bulletin for Q4 of 2016 which indicates that the level of mortgages in arrears is continuing to fall for the fourteenth consecutive quarter, with the cohort of loans in arrears for more than 720 days recording the sixth quarterly decline to date and a 3.2 per cent quarter-on-quarter decrease, the largest  quarterly decline in this category to date.