Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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34. To ask the Minister for Finance if his Department has engaged with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage to source a better solution for the mortgage to rent scheme given the potential profits available to a private operator. [29650/22]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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A whole of Government strategy has been put in place to address the mortgage arrears problem and the level of arrears continues to decline. The number of primary dwelling mortgages in arrears peaked at over 140,000 in 2013 and have subsequently declined to around 47,000 mortgage accounts at the end of December 2021. This amounts to 6.5 per cent of all primary dwelling mortgage accounts.

However, if accounts in short term arrears are excluded, around 32,500 mortgages are more than 90 days in arrears which amounts to 4.5 per cent of all primary mortgages as at the end of 2021. At the end of 2020, 5.3 per cent of primary dwelling accounts were more than 90 days in arrears.

As one part of this overall Government framework to address mortgage arrears, ‘Mortgage To Rent’ (MTR) was introduced in 2012 as a specific social housing response for borrowers who, having gone through the Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process as set out in the Central Bank Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears, were deemed to have an unsustainable private mortgage.

Under the MTR scheme, the borrower surrenders their property to their lender and it is then then sold to an MTR provider which can be either an Approved Housing Body or, since 2018, a private company. The Approved Housing Body or local authority (in the case where the property is sold to a private company) then becomes the landlord and the borrower remains in the property as a tenant paying a differential rent to the landlord based on his or her income.

The inclusion of a private entity in the MTR scheme arose from a 2017 review of the scheme and was seen as a way to achieve greater scale to meet the long-term social housing needs of some borrowers who have unsustainable mortgages.

In overall terms, eligibility for the MTR scheme and policy on the operation of the scheme, including the entities which can purchase properties and provide services under the scheme, are in the first instance a matter for my colleague the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage. However, I work closely with my colleague as we seek to address the problem of mortgage arrears and housing more generally.