Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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298. To ask the Minister for Finance the spend by the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman on consultants and external contractors for IT and legal services for the years 2022, 2023 and 2024; the progress made with the development of a new IT support management system; the projected cost of the support management system being fully completed and operational, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9205/25]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (FSPO) is an important part of the robust consumer protection framework in place in Ireland to support consumers of financial products and services.

I wish to inform the Deputy that the FSPO’s external legal expenditure for 2022 and 2023 is published in its Annual Financial Statements for those years under the headings Legal Fees and External Drafters.

In addition to the spend with legal service providers during the year, the published figure for legal fees includes movements in the provision for legal costs. Excluding movements in the legal provision, the figures for 2022, 2023 and 2024 are set out in the table below.

The figures for both IT and Legal Services for 2024 will remain draft until the finalisation of the 2024 Annual Financial Statements, and the figure for 2024 could be impacted prior to finalisation due to, for example, legal cost settlements for proceedings concluded that year.

The project to replace the existing Case Management System is underway. A tender was published on the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) in October 2024 and is currently under active evaluation. The FSPO expects to be able to award a contract in the next two months, with the next phase expected to commence in Q2 2025.

Due to the ongoing tender process, it is not prudent to disclose any costs at this time, as a winning tender has not yet been selected. However, please note that when publishing the Request for Tenders on the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) via eTenders, the expected indicative cost was stated as €3 million, to include development followed by 3 years of software licencing, maintenance and managed services. The final projected cost will depend on the outcome of the ongoing tender process.

Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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299. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of new licenses issued to companies offering equity release requests and lifetime loans in the Irish market over the past five years; the number of drawdowns and the total value for the years 2020 to 2024, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9206/25]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The Central Bank of Ireland is responsible for the supervision of all regulated financial service providers. While it does not regulate or authorise firms on a product specific basis, firms which are involved in the general activity of providing credit or other type of financial accommodation to consumers, and which may include equity release type financial products such as lifetime mortgages or home reversion agreements, may be authorised as either a credit institution, a credit union, a retail credit firm or a home reversion firm.

The Central Bank’s Registers sets out all the firms that currently have such an authorisation and these are available on the ‘Registers’ section of the Central Bank’s website and are updated as and when necessary by the Central Bank.

In addition to the Registers, the Central Bank advised that it published its inaugural ‘Authorisation and Gatekeeping Report in June 2024’ (which is also available on the Regulation section of the Central Bank website). This report provides authorisation data for the period 1 January to 31 December 2023 and such a report will be published annually in the future.

Prior to this, authorisations data was published as part of the Central Bank’s ‘Annual Report and Annual Performance Statement’ (copies of which can be found on the Annual Reports Archive section of the Central Bank website).

In relation to the drawdown of such financial products, I have been informed by the Central Bank that it does not publish specific data on the number or the value of drawdowns for 'equity release' type financial accommodation or 'lifetime mortgages'.

Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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300. To ask the Minister for Finance the regulatory and financial oversight and safeguards in place for companies offering "lifetime loans" and "equity release" to older persons to re-mortgage their homes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9207/25]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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In general any entity which is involved in the business of providing credit to consumers, including entities which provide ‘lifetime mortgages’ or ‘equity release’ type financial accommodation, falls within the supervisory remit of the Central Bank of Ireland. Such entities are required to comply with all relevant requirements of financial services legislation, including the regulatory requirements set out in the Central Bank's existing codes of conduct and regulations. These include:

• the Consumer Protection Code 2012,
• the Code of Conduct for Mortgage Arrears 2013,
• the Central Bank (Supervision and Enforcement) Act 2013 (Section 48) (Lending to Small and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises) Regulations 2015 (SME Regulations),
• the Fitness and Probity Regime,
• the Central Bank (Supervision and Enforcement) Act 2013 (Section 48(1)) Minimum Competency Regulations 2017, and
• the Minimum Competency Code 2017.

In particular the CPC provides that, prior to offering, recommending, arranging or providing a lifetime mortgage to a personal consumer, a regulated entity must inform the personal consumer of the consequences of purchasing a 'lifetime mortgage' and the consumer must be provided with the following:

• the circumstances in which the loan will have to be repaid,
• details of the interest rate that will be charged,
• an explanation of the impact of the rolling up of the interest over the duration of the loan,
• an indication of the amount required to repay the loan at maturity,
• the effect on an existing mortgage, if any,
• an indication of the likely early redemption costs which would be incurred if the loan was redeemed on the third and fifth anniversary of the loan and at five yearly intervals thereafter.

Finally retail credit firm must comply with the Central Bank’s Authorisation Requirements and Standards which require, inter alia, that they must be able to demonstrate that they are in a position to conduct their affairs in a manner that ensures the best interests of their customers are protected.