Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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188. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 258 of 5 February 2025, the measures he refers to that were introduced in 2023 to support borrowers who wish, and are in a position, to switch their mortgage; to provide any data his Department might have on how those measures are functioning; to outline any specifics in those measures that relate primarily to people whose mortgages are with credit servicing firms and who find themselves paying high interest rates (relative to the ECB rate or the market); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14779/25]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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In September 2023, Banking and Payments Federation Ireland (BPFI) and the industry announced a package of measures to assist mortgage borrowers who were experiencing repayment difficulty in the light of the increase in the cost of living and increases in interest rates. As part of this initiative, certain lenders agreed initial eligibility criteria to provide certain guidelines to assist borrowers who wished to switch their mortgage from a ‘non-bank’ creditor to a bank. In order to be eligible to switch under these guidelines, it was indicated that borrowers would need to be making full capital and interest repayments on their mortgage and have no arrears on their home mortgage or any other lending in the past two years. Once borrowers meet these and other initial criteria, applications would then be assessed on a case-by-case basis in line with individual lender credit policy. Therefore, subject to compliance with the legal and regulatory requirements governing the provision of credit to consumers, the decision on whether or not to provide new credit, or the amount of credit to provide, remains a commercial matter for an individual lender. However, if any mortgage applicant is not happy with the way a bank or other type of regulated entity is dealing with him/her or if he/she considers that it is not following the requirements of the Central Bank’s codes and regulations or other financial services law, the consumer should make a complaint directly to the regulated firm in the first instance. If the consumer is not satisfied with the response from the regulated firm, he/she can refer the complaint to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman (FSPO).

In relation to mortgage drawdowns, the BPFI publishes such data on the quarterly basis and it indicates that, in 2024, the amount of new lending amounted to almost €12.6bn. While it does not specifically provide a breakdown of the level of mortgage lending between different categories of Central Bank regulated entity, it nevertheless indicates that some €1bn of new mortgage lending in 2024 was for ‘re-mortgaging’ and that a further €3.2bn was in respect of ‘mover purchasers’.

From a regulatory perspective, the Central Bank has continued to engage with regulated firms on the operation of specific aspects of the consumer protection framework and in relation to mortgage switching it had indicated that regulated firms have sufficient operational capacity in place to manage applications by borrowers to switch their mortgage or mortgage provider.