Brian Brennan (Wicklow-Wexford, Fine Gael)
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1302. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government when he intends to instruct local authorities to reduce the interest rates for their long standing variable interest mortgage holders, as the last reduction was October 2023 and there have been multiple interest rate cuts by the ECB since this time; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20233/25]

James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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Local Authority Home Loans are not funded through borrowings from the European Central Bank (ECB). Local authorities borrow from the Housing Finance Agency to finance their lending under the Local Authority Home Loan schemes.

The interest rate for Local Authority Home Loans are not directly linked to the European Central Bank refinancing rates. That said, as the cost of finance to the Housing Finance Agency is determined by the cost of finance on international markets, the monetary policy decisions of the European Central Bank do ultimately have an influence.

While administratively it is my Department that instructs local authorities to change interest rates, this instruction generally reflects changes in the cost of finance from the Housing Finance Agency, as by law the interest rate charged cannot be below the cost of finance from the Housing Finance Agency.

The current interest rate charged to borrower on a variable rate loan is 4%. It is not possible to give guidance as to when and by how much interest rates for the Local Authority Home Loans may change.