Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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128. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the funds that are available to someone who is eligible for the full housing aid for the older persons' grant, but where the work done in the house is over the €8,000 maximum; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42883/23]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail)
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Both the Programme for Government and Housing for All commit to strengthening the Mortgage to Rent (MTR) scheme and ensuring that it is helping those who need it. Building on the significant amendments already made to the scheme in 2017, the 2021 Review, published on 24 January 2022, examined the impact of these changes and what further changes would benefit those in need of the scheme. While the scheme is performing well, it was assessed that some further enhancements were needed to enable more households in need of State support with their long-term housing needs to avail of this scheme.

Four broad categories of actions are identified in the review, including:

a) Broadening the eligibility criteria;

b) Improving the scheme process, structure and financing;

c) Increasing communication and awareness raising; and

d) Responding to developments around mortgage arrears solutions.

A number of actions have been completed and progress is also being made under other actions within the review.

One key priority action was to broaden the eligibility criteria of the scheme and this was implemented in February 2022. These include changes to the positive equity and property acquisition limits and more flexibility on over-accommodation where a member of the household is aged 65 or over, or has a disability. Also, the increase in the income threshold for social housing has also opened the MTR scheme up to more borrowers because households entering MTR must qualify for social housing support. These changes have enabled borrowers not previously eligible to apply for the scheme.

An advertising campaign on urban and regional buses was conducted during quarter 4 of 2022 under the 'Communication and awareness raising' action and further initiatives to increase awareness of the scheme will be undertaken. There is continued engagement with Abhaile, the Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI) and Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) to disseminate information on the MTR scheme.

My Department, in conjunction with the Housing Agency, is currently running an Expressions of Interest (EOI) process which invited participants from both the private and Approved Housing Body (AHB) sector to put forward their interest in becoming MTR providers who can deliver the scheme at scale. This EOI process is necessary for the long-term sustainability of the scheme and will offer lenders more providers with whom they can engage and process cases with. The results of this process will be announced shortly.

The Cross Sectoral Working Group was established and meetings were held in 2022 with the next meeting due to take place once the EOI process referred to above is fully concluded.

Full details of the recommendations and associated actions are outlined within the 2021 Review of the Mortgage to Rent (MTR) scheme for people who have borrowed from commercial private lending institutions and this review is available on my Department's website under Publications: www.gov.ie/en/publication/ed57b-2021-review-of-the-mortgage-to-rent-scheme-for-borrowers-of-commercial-private-lending-institutions/.

My Department is also represented on the newly established long-term mortgage arrears group along with representatives from the Department of Justice, the Department of Social Protection, the Department of Finance and other stakeholders. The objective of this group is to examine the full suite of measures in place to reduce the number of people in long-term mortgage arrears and to recommend changes to increase the efficacy of these measures where necessary.