Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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266. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of residential units in the possession of each of the State backed banks that are currently unoccupied; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27436/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The information requested by the Deputy is not available within the Department of Finance.

As the Deputy is aware, the Relationship Framework agreements define the arm's-length nature of the relationship between the State and the banks in which the State has an investment, and as such each bank is individually and independently responsible for managing their stock of repossessed properties. As noted in the annual reports cited below, repossessed properties are offered for sale by the banks using external agents as soon as practicable.

AIB have informed me that it is AIB Bank policy to sell all residential assets on a vacant possession basis. All disclosures in relation to AIB’s residential mortgages – properties in possession can be found on page 109 of AIB’s Financial Report 2016, which can be found here: https://aib.ie/content/dam/aib/investorrelations/docs/resultscentre/annualreport/annual-financial-report-2016.pdf 

PTSB have advised me that from the 1st January 2016 to the 31st Dec 2016, permanent tsb took possession of 116 properties; just 11 of these were a result of an Executed Order (i.e. a repossession achieved through the courts) while the remaining were properties which were either surrendered to the bank voluntarily by their owners or properties where the bank took repossession because it deemed the properties to be at risk (typically left vacant by owners). At the 31st December 2016 the bank had a total of 463 properties in its possession. These figures are reflected in the bank's 2016 annual report, available here:

Bank of Ireland disclose information on properties in possession and repossessions disposed of for their Retail Ireland Mortgage portfolio on page 372 of their annual report. A link to the 2016 Bank of Ireland report is available here:

I am firmly of the view that the Irish banking system has an important role to play in the normalisation of the Irish housing sector through the speedy return of properties in their possession to the general market. I am also conscious that where a bank comes into possession of a property the institution has a fiduciary responsibility to dispose of the property in a manner that satisfies its independent, commercial mandate. However I welcome the fact that this is now also happening through interaction with the Housing Agency, local authorities or other means.

I would also draw the Deputy's attention to the most recent mortgage arrears and repossession statistics released by the Central Bank: .