Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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155. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of repossessions of family homes carried out by each of the main banks in each of the past five years to date; the number of multiple residence developments affected in the same period; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [13847/20]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I have been advised by the Central Bank of Ireland that within the remit of their responsibilities for safeguarding stability and protecting consumers, its approach to mortgage arrears resolution is focused on ensuring the fair treatment of borrowers through a strong consumer protection framework and ensuring that lenders have appropriate arrears resolution strategies and operations in place.

The Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears (CCMA) forms part of the Central Bank’s Consumer Protection Framework. It is a statutory Code first introduced by the Central Bank in February 2009, with the current CCMA becoming effective from 1 July 2013.The CCMA provides a strong consumer protection framework, aimed specifically at the process to be followed by relevant firms, to ensure borrowers in arrears or pre-arrears in respect of a mortgage loan secured on a primary residence are treated in a timely, transparent and fair manner.

Under the CCMA, a regulated entity may only commence legal proceedings for repossession where it has made every reasonable effort to agree an alternative repayment arrangement (ARA) with the borrowers and other clear requirements are met or the borrower has been classified as not co-operating.

This framework requires lenders to exhaust the options available from the suite of ARAs offered before taking action which may result in the borrower losing his/her home (whether by voluntary sale or repossession). During the legal process, borrowers have opportunities to re-engage with lenders to find a solution. In some circumstances, however, loss of ownership may be unavoidable.

The Residential Mortgage Arrears, Restructures and Repossessions Statistics published every quarter provides detail in relation to the number of home mortgage repossessions. The data is published on the central bank website

.

The following tables provide a summary of owner occupier (Principal Dwelling house (PDH)) repossessions over the previous five years. The available data is broken out into Banks and Non-bank lenders, not by individual banks. Furthermore, no separate breakout of the data is currently available in relation to number of multiple residence developments.

PDH properties TOTAL (bank & non-bank)

PDH - Banks

PDH - Non-Banks