Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 June 2012
415 Deputy Michael Healy-Rae asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if there is any national policy proposed by him with regard to the National Finance Agency to work with the local authorities to enable them to come up with suitable proposals in order that persons will be in a position to continue to pay their loans at an agreed reduced rate; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27738/12]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department issued comprehensive guidance to local authorities on the treatment of mortgage arrears, including local authority mortgages for shared ownership transactions, in March 2010. That guidance was closely based on the Central Bank's first statutoryCode of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears to ensure that cases of local authority mortgage arrears are handled in a manner that is sympathetic to the needs of the particular household, while also protecting the position of the local authority concerned.To reflect the content of the Central Bank’s revised Code of Conduct — which replaced the previous code from 1 January 2011 and was informed by the deliberations of the Expert Group on Mortgage Arrears and Personal Debt — my Department is currently preparing updated guidance to local authorities in consultation with the City and County Managers Association.
There are two aspects to the guidance: there is borrower focused guidance which will e.g. set out the types of arrangements that authorities should be offering to borrowers, the details of how contact should be initiated with a distressed borrower and the frequency with which an authority should make contact. The second piece of the guidance is the back-end accounting treatment of the various solutions being put forward to ensure that authorities are treating people consistently and managing their own resources consistently too. While it is of obvious importance that authorities offer compassionate and practical solutions to those mortgage holders who require some support, it is, equally, incumbent on all authorities to protect as best as they can their overall financial position.
