The Government is acutely conscious of the difficulties many households are facing in terms of mortgage arrears. In October 2011 we published the Report of the Inter-Departmental Working Group on Mortgage Arrears and implementation of the report's recommendations is a key part of the Government's ongoing efforts to tackle mortgage difficulty.
A Steering Group, chaired by the Department of Finance, has been established to oversee and drive the overall implementation of the report's recommendations and to report regularly to the Economic Management Council and to Government on this. In addition to the Department of Finance, the Steering Group includes the Departments of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Justice and Equality, Social Protection and Public Expenditure and Reform. The Central Bank is also represented on the Group.
Separate working groups, established to progress the individual work streams of this broad work area, report to the overall Steering Group. Significant progress has already been achieved across a number of the individual work areas.
The Minister for Justice and Equality has produced the General Scheme of a Personal Insolvency Bill
On "mortgage to rent", my Department has advanced work with a number of lenders and an approved housing body to pilot a scheme which will test the practicalities of such a measure in advance of wider implementation.
Regarding engagement with the banks, the Central Bank, as the regulator of credit institutions, has now received mortgage arrears resolution strategies and implementation plans from all mortgage lenders and these are being considered by the Central Bank.
Work has also commenced on the necessary steps to put in place the mortgage advisory function as recommended by the Inter-Departmental group.
In addition, my Department had already taken steps to take account of the critical interface between the Central Bank's Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process and the social housing needs assessment process. New provisions, introduced under the Social Housing Assessment Amendment Regulations introduced in July 2011, now enable an authority to carry out a needs assessment at any time after a mortgage has been deemed to be unsustainable and before repossession proceedings have been instituted. My Department does not hold information on the number of households on local authorities' waiting lists, or on the number of households that may, at some point in the future, apply for social housing. The number of households on waiting lists continuously fluctuates as households are allocated housing and new households apply for housing support. Detailed information on the latest statutory assessment of housing need carried out in March 2011, including a breakdown by housing authority, is available onmy Department's website —www.environ.ie or on the Housing Agency’s website at www.housing.ie.