Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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77. To ask the Minister for Finance if a proposal (details supplied) will be considered; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42614/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Central Bank of Ireland has overall responsibility for the protection of financial stability in Ireland and in that context it introduced, in 2015, certain restrictions on residential mortgage lending by regulated financial institutions.

The Central Bank has advised that these mortgage measures are now in place as a permanent feature of the market and are operating in line with their stated objectives of enhancing the resilience of banks and borrowers to future shocks and reducing the risk of credit - house price spirals from developing.

In line with its procedures, the Central Bank reviews the calibration of the mortgage measures on an annual basis given prevailing market conditions and with respect to the objectives of the measures. The Central Bank has indicated that the reviews which have taken place since their introduction have confirmed that the measures are effective, and are contributing to financial and economic stability by reducing the risk of unsustainable lending and borrowing. In particular, when the supply of housing remains below what would be considered optimal given demand factors such as demographic trends and income growth, the absence of such mortgage measures would likely have resulted in more aggressive increases in house prices.

The measures limit the amount of high loan-to-income (LTI) and loan-to-value (LTV) mortgages which can be provided. For principal dwelling mortgages the LTI limit is 3.5. For first-time buyers (FTBs) the LTV limit is 90 per cent, while for second and subsequent buyers (SSBs) the limit is 80 per cent. The limits are proportional, and across the various categories lenders are permitted to issue a certain level of loans above these limits in a prudent manner. Also borrowers who are currently in negative equity and want to move home by purchasing another property are exempt from the LTV limits.