Ministers Brian Lenihan and Eamon Ryan today (25^th February 2010) announced the establishment of a group of experts to work with the Government on our response to the issue of indebtedness.

The Independent Chair will be Mr. Hugh Cooney, consultant with KPMG. The other members are as follows:

Matthew Elderfield, Acting Head of Consumer Protection

David Duffy, ESRI, author of report on Negative Equity

Pat Farrell, Irish Banking Federation

Tom Foley, retired banker

Paul Joyce, FLAC

Patricia Rickard-Clarke, LRC

Brendan Burgess, www.askaboutmoney.ie

Senior officials of the Department of Finance, Department of the Taoiseach, Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Department of Social and Family Affairs and Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government .

These experts will work within Government and present their recommendations on a rolling basis to the Minister for Finance, for consideration by Government. The work will commence immediately.

The Terms of Reference will be based on the Renewed Programme for Government and include mortgage and non-mortgage debt. They include an examination of measures to assist those in mortgage arrears to keep possession of their family home with reference to the measures adopted in other jurisdictions. The ongoing deliberations of the Law Reform Commission will be considered, specifically reform of personal insolvency, bankruptcy law and debt enforcement.

The Ministers thanked those who are willing to give of their time and expertise.

The Ministers stated, “Keeping families in their home is a social and economic priority. The Government also wishes to remove, as far as practicable, debt enforcement proceedings from the courts.

In our efforts to achieve our aim, it is important that we do not jeopardise the ability of the financial system to access credit. There are no simple solutions to the debt issues we now face.

We are confident that the wide membership and expertise of all the individuals involved, working closely with Government, will bring forward innovative recommendations on debt management and enforcement.

Along with the creation of jobs and the continuing work of Government on the future of our banking system, this work can only help our national recovery.”

Notes for Editors

Renewed Programme for Government – page 15

Protecting the Family Home

We will introduce new measures to protect families having difficulties with their home mortgage payments.

The existing statutory Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears and the recently agreed protocol between the Irish Bankers Federation (IBF) and the Money Advice and Budgeting Service (MABS) on debt default will be further reviewed with a view to expanding the options available for dealing with debt situations, including for example, the use by banks and lenders of more flexible mechanisms to avoid foreclosure in appropriate circumstances. These could include:

• reduced rates
• longer maturity dates
• rolling-up of outstanding interest
• bank taking equity in the house
• bank taking ownership and leasing back the property to the resident with rent payments coming off the loan.

With reference to the measures adopted in other jurisdictions, the Government will examine ways of expanding its own mortgage-support measures.

Helping Those in Debt

We will reform debt enforcement in light of the deliberation of the Law Reform Commission, which has recently published a consultation paper on the matter. We will regulate debt collection agencies.

We will create a new system of personal insolvency regulations allowing for a statutory non-court-based debt settlement system.

We will seek to establish a central Debt Enforcement Office to remove as many debt enforcement proceeds from the courts as possible.

ends