Fianna Fáil County Council candidate James Carroll has welcomed the recent announcement by Mr. Michael Finneran, T.D. Minister for Housing, Urban Renewal and Developing Areas clarifying the actual facts regarding the current position on mortgage arrears and the re-possession of houses.

“The recent statistics from the courts service shows that that repossession is by no means an automatic outcome of getting into arrears. It should be noted that the numbers of repossession orders sought are only a small fraction of the numbers of mortgages in arrears.”

“Less than 10% of repossession orders actually result in the repossessing of houses,” added Mr. Carroll

“Another important new development in this area is the new mandatory Code of Conduct on Mortgage arrears. This builds on the existing voluntary Code of Practice issued by the Irish Banking Federation, and incorporates a requirement for the lender to wait at least six months from the time arrears arise before taking legal action”

“Fundamentally in this difficult time it is incumbent on our financial institutions that they do their utmost to assist those who are recently unemployed and struggling to pay their mortgages,” concluded James Carroll.