Vol. 452 No. 5
30 Miss Harney asked the Minister for Social Welfare if consideration will be given to introducing some form of mandatory insurance in respect of people taking out new mortgages to ensure that State involvement in subsidising people with mortgage interest through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme will occur only in rare cases. [8261/95]
Under the provisions of the supplementary welfare allowance, SWA, scheme, health boards may pay a weekly supplement towards mortgage interest payments to people in receipt of social welfare or health board payments. The supplement is payable in respect of the interest content of the mortgage only.
In 1994, approximately 46,500 new mortgages were taken out. In 1991, the last year for which there are statistics available, there were over 400,000 mortgage holders in Ireland. A total of 7,600 people on social welfare type incomes received assistance with their mortgage interest payments under the SWA scheme in any one month in 1994. This represents less than 2 per cent of the 1991 figure of 400,000 mortgage holders.
The Department of the Environment introduced legislation which required building societies to arrange mortgage protection insurance on loans taken out after 29 February 1988. This insurance is to cover the payment of the principal due to the lending institution in the event of the death of the borrower.
The introduction of mandatory insurance cover for all new mortgages would increase the financial burden on borrowers taking out mortgages; however, the introduction of such a requirement would be a matter for consideration by the Minister for the Environment in the context of overall housing policy.
