Skip to main content

Mortgage Interest Relief Supplement Facts...

Mortgage misery index shows commuters' pain...

DURING the Celtic Tiger era, the most high-profile example of how the country was finally wealthy was the booming numbers who constituted Ireland's 'rich list'.

However, the new realities of post-boom Ireland are epitomised by a county-by-country breakdown of the numbers receiving Mortgage Interest Relief Supplement (MIRS), that has just been compiled by the Department of Social Protection.

MIRS is a scheme whereby the Department of Social Protection pays the interest part of a mortgage when householders become unemployed and can no longer meet their payments.

Such payments are supposed to be short term -- although in practice this is no longer the case -- and are meant only to cover the interest element of the mortgage.

After a modest start to the scheme, the numbers availing of it -- and therefore its cost -- have almost quadrupled.

Unsurprisingly, the department's figures indicate that the two counties with the largest numbers of citizens in receipt of the relief were Dublin and Cork.

But when it came to the Misery Index, which traces the top sufferers from the collapse of the property boom, other high population centres, such as Galway and Limerick, area lowly seventh and eighth on the department's mortgage map.

Instead, recipients of MIRS are overwhelmingly concentrated in the 'commuter constituencies' of Kildare, Meath and Wexford, while the figures are also surprisingly high in counties such as Tipperary and the Taoiseach's own constituency of Mayo.

The political consequences of the collapse of the housing market are illustrated by the fact that Fianna Fail does not currently have any Dail seats in Dublin, Kildare or Meath and has just one in Wexford.

The statistics reveal that, astonishingly, five counties have more than a thousand households that are in receipt of the supplement.

In a grim illustration of the extent of the housing collapse, the list reveals that an estimated 19,720 houses will be in receipt of the supplement in 2011 at an estimated cost to the Exchequer of €77.2m.

It should be noted that whilst households technically receive the supplement, the money actually goes to the banks, in what amounts to another taxpayer-funded subsidy.

The figures supplied by the department also reveal that when the numbers receiving MIRS are combined with those who are in receipt of rent supplement, almost 120,000 households are receiving housing support from the State at a cost of more than €520m.

When it comes to mortgage interest relief, the latest statistics also reveal that during the boom years of 2002 to 2005 the numbers availing of the scheme fell by 10pc, 16pc and 3pc respectively.

However, this was more than counterbalanced by increases of 97pc in 2008 and 87pc in 2009 -- although the rate of increase has subsequently flattened out.

Nevertheless, increases of 19pc in 2010 and an estimated increase of 10pc this year means the numbers availing of the scheme over the previous three years have almost quadrupled.

Report by JOHN DRENNAN - Sunday Independent

Popular posts from this blog

Ireland's Celtic Tiger Excesses...

'Bang twins' may never get to run a business again... POST-boom Ireland is awash with cautionary tales of Celtic Tiger excesses, as a rattle around the carcasses of fallen property developers and entrepreneurs will show. Few can compete with the so-called Bang twins for youth, glamour and tasteful extravagance. Simon and Christian Stokes, the 35-year-old identical twins behind Bang Cafe and exclusive private members club, Residence, saw their entire business go bust with debts of €9m, €3m of which is owed to the tax man. The debt may be in the ha'penny place compared with the eye-watering billions owed by some of their former customers. But their fall has been arguably steeper and more damning than some of the country's richest tycoons. Last week, further humiliation was heaped on them with revelations that even as their businesses were going under, the twins spent €146,000 of company money in 18 months on designer shopping sprees, five star holidays and sumptu

Property Tycoon's Dolce Vita Ends...

Tycoon's dolce vita ends as art seized... THE Dublin city sheriff has seized an art collection and other valuables from the Ailesbury Road home of fallen property developer Bernard McNamara. The collection will be sold to help pay his debts. The sheriff, Brendan Walsh, is believed to have moved against the property developer within the past fortnight, calling to his salubrious Dublin 4 home acting on a court order to seize anything of value from his home to reimburse his creditors. The sheriff is believed to have taken paintings from the family home along with a small number of other items. The development marks a new low for Mr McNamara, once one of Ireland's richest men but who now owes €1.5bn . The property developer and former county councillor from Clare turned the building firm founded by his father Michael into one of the biggest in Ireland. He is the highest-profile former tycoon to date to be targeted by bailiffs, signalling just how far some of Ireland's billionai

I fear a very different kind of property crash

While 80% of people over 40 own their own home just a third of adults under 40 do. This is disastrous for social solidarity and cohesion Changing this system of policymaking requires a government to act in a way that may be uncomfortable for some. Governments have a horizon of no more than five years, and the housing issue requires long-term planning. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform was intended to tackle some of these problems. According to its website its remit is to “drive the delivery of better public services, living standards and infrastructure for the people of Ireland by enhancing governance, building capacity and delivering effectively”. So how is the challenge of delivering homes for people in 2024 and beyond going to be met? The extent of the problem is visible in the move by companies, including Ryanair, to buy properties to house staff. Ryanair has, justifiably, defended its right to do so. IPAV has long articulated its views on how to improve supply an