I refer to Parliamentary Question No.106 of 17 November 2011.
During 1984 the rate of interest charged by the Local Loans Fund to local authorities for house purchase and improvement loans was 12%. Local authorities were permitted to add an administration charge of 0.5%. The rate of interest charged on non-housing loans from the Fund during 1984 was 13.5%.
Since 1989 individuals who have mortgages from local authorities have been permitted to redeem their loans early without penalty. In turn, local authorities were permitted to redeem without penalty Local Loans Fund loans of matching amounts and at matching interest rates to the individual loans redeemed.
The Office of Public Works administers the Local Loans Fund on behalf of the Department of Finance. I understand from that Office that South Dublin County Council no longer has any loans with the Local Loans Fund. If South Dublin County Council contacts the OPW with a loan number, it will be able to provide information on the loan issue amount and the interest paid over the lifetime of that loan. The Local Loans Fund does not hold records of loans issued to mortgagees so that information would have to be sourced from South Dublin County Council. There is no profit made by the Exchequer on loans to local authorities for the purpose of mortgages.
The Exchequer lending rate in 1984 was linked to the average yield of short-dated Government stocks and stood at 13.5%. The average interest rate paid by the Exchequer on the National Debt was 7.26% in 1994 and 4.44% in 2004.
