Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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811. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the amount of public funding that has been spent on legal fees for the mortgage to rent scheme; the number of mortgages approved for the mortgage to rent scheme that have been sold to vulture funds; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20514/21]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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The Mortage to Rent (MTR) scheme introduced in 2012 for borrowers of commercial lending institutions is targeted at those households in mortgage arrears who have had their mortgage position deemed unsustainable by their lender under the Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process (MARP), who agree to the voluntary surrender of their home and who have very limited options, if any, to meet their long-term housing needs themselves. In addition, the household must be deemed eligible for social housing support.

Since the introduction of the private MTR scheme in 2012 to the end of March 2021, 1,179households with unsustainable private mortgages have completed the MTR process. The 1,179 households in the scheme represent 1,970 adults and 1,699 children who have remained living in their homes and communities. There are currently 1,079active cases being progressed under the scheme.

Currently there are 23 lenders participating in the MTR scheme including both banks and non-bank entities. The Housing Agency publishes, on a quarterly basis, detailed statistical information on the operation of the MTR scheme including a breakdown of the number of active, completed, ineligible and terminated cases per lender. This information is available on the Agency's website at the following link:

Lenders contribute up to €500 towards legal fees for advice for the borrower to enable the borrower to take an informed decision as to whether MTR is the correct solution to resolve their mortgage arrears situation. Where a borrower applies for MTR, the €500 contribution would also cover the legal fees incurred on the voluntary surrender of the property by the borrower to the lender which are minimal. Lenders cover their own legal costs.

My Department does not cover any legal costs where Home for Life, a private company, acquires a property under the MTR scheme.

In order to assist Approved Housing Bodies (AHBs) with the legal and technical costs incurred in a MTR transaction, my Department pays a once-off administration fee which is based on either vouched expenditure or on 5% of the annual payment & availability agreement cost, whichever is the lesser. In addition, 1.5% of the Capital Advance Leasing Facility (CALF) eligible capital costs of a project is available to an AHB after the payment & availability agreement for the unit is signed and this funding can be used to cover legal fees incurred by the AHB.

Under the Abhaile service, which is jointly funded by the Departments of Justice and Social Protection, a borrower can access free legal advice on issues related to their mortgage arrears and how best to resolve these issues.The MTR scheme may present as a solution in some of these cases where appropriate.

A review of the MTR scheme undertaken in 2017 introduced a range of improvements to the eligibility criteria and its administration. In order to increase awareness and understanding of the scheme a new website, www.mortgagetorent.ie, was developed. In addition, new structures and arrangements were put in place to encourage a greater number of entities to take part in the scheme. As a result of the improvements implemented, an upward trend in case completions has been evident since 2018.

Building on the significant improvements already made to the scheme since 2017 and in line with the commitment in the Programme for Government to strengthen the scheme and ensure that it is helping those who need it, my Department is currently working closely with the Housing Agency to identify any further improvements required to the scheme.