I am informed by the Central Bank that 'Court Proceedings issued' means that a formal application has been made to a Court to begin repossession proceedings or that Court proceedings are currently ongoing. Cases counted under this heading include:
- cases where an application has been made to Court but a Court date has not yet been received;
- cases where Court proceedings have issued but have not been served;
- cases which have been adjourned for a specific period, e.g., 12 months.
The Deputy should be aware that the CBI figures relate to the number of mortgage accounts, unlike the Courts Service figures which relate to the number of Civil Bills for Possession issued.
Some properties are have multiple mortgages which accounts for the larger number of legal proceedings reported by the CBI.
It is also important to note in relation to the number of Court proceedings issued that it is not the case that all Civil Bills for Possession issued will inevitably lead to Possession Bills being granted by the Courts, as many cases will be withdrawn at the request of either the lender or the borrower.
In relation to the further breakdown of the proceedings issued statistic, I am informed by the Central Bank that it is not possible to provide statistics on this basis. To provide information on this disaggregated basis may allow particular institutions to be identified. This would be in breach of confidentiality rules around the compilation of these statistics.
