Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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88. To ask the Minister for Finance if the Central Bank has plans to investigate whether persons with business loans were wrongly denied their contractual right to return to a tracker rate following a period on a fixed rate or have not been put on the correct tracker rate; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [26503/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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I am informed by the Central Bank that business loans provided to businesses are not in the scope of the Central Bank’s ongoing tracker examination. However some business loans which are connected to Private Dwelling Homes and Buy to Lets may come within scope due to the connection.

The Tracker Mortgage Examination requires lenders, which offered tracker interest rate mortgages to their customers, to review all mortgage accounts from the date when the lender commenced offering tracker interest rate mortgages until 31 December 2015 in respect of both Private Dwelling Houses and Buy-to-Let properties: 

1. that originated on tracker interest rates;

2. that had tracker interest rates applied at any stage during the term of the underlying mortgage agreements; and/or

3. where the underlying mortgage agreements provided for contractual rights to or options for tracker interest rates at any stage during the term of the agreements.

The Deputy may wish to note that the Central Bank recently published an update report on the Tracker Mortgage Examination, which sets out amongst other areas, the scope of the Examination. The Report is available at the following link: