Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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272. To ask the Minister for Finance if his attention has been drawn to banks withdrawing the negative equity trade up product; if he will engage with them to reopen it to applications; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28577/20]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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As Minister for Finance, I do not have a role in the commercial decision making processes of credit institutions or the selection of the products which they choose to provide. This is a commercial matter for each individual credit institution having regard to the relevant legal and regulatory requirements which apply.

With regard to those regulatory requirements, the Deputy may wish to note that there is an exemption from the Central Bank’s macro-prudential mortgage measures – in respect of the loan-to-value (LTV) restriction on mortgage borrowers – for those in negative equity who wish to purchase a new home. This means that the mortgage shortfall remaining after a person sells their existing home can be added to the balance of the new mortgage for a new home and that the macro-prudential deposit requirements will not apply to that new mortgage.

The Central Bank’s consumer protection framework also includes a number of measures to protect consumers who are taking out a mortgage and seeks to ensure that lenders are transparent and fair in all their dealings with borrowers and that borrowers are protected from the beginning to the end of the mortgage life cycle. The Consumer Protection Code 2012 requires regulated entities to carry out affordability and suitability assessment, prior to offering, recommending, arranging or providing a credit product to a personal consumer. Separately, the European Union (Consumer Mortgage Credit Agreements) Regulations 2016 require that creditors assess the creditworthiness of the consumer before concluding a credit agreement.

However, subject to the requirement to comply with the relevant legal and regulatory requirements which govern the provision of residential mortgage credit to consumers, as indicated it is ultimately a commercial matter for an individual lender to decide whether to offer particular products or whether to provide a new mortgage loan or decide on how much credit to provide in any particular case.