The government is being asked again to urgently introduce legislation to protect mortgage holders whose mortgages have been sold to unregulated entities.

Fianna Fáil spokesperson on Finance, Deputy Michael McGrath said the news that Investec has sold Start Mortgages to private equity firm Lone Star highlights once again the need for legislation to protect vulnerable mortgage holders.

Mr McGrath said: "Prior to the deal announced relating to Start Mortgages, the Minister for Finance estimated that up to 10,000 mortgage holders have had their mortgage sold to an unregulated entity. These mortgage holders are in a vulnerable position as they fall outside the statutory Code of Conduct on Mortgage Arrears (CCMA) and lose access to the Financial Services Ombudsman. Voluntary compliance with the CCMA is simply not good enough since it cannot be policed in any way. In my view, mortgage holders in arrears are particularly vulnerable if their mortgage has been sold to an unregulated fund.

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"The government initially promised legislation to deal with the issue in 2015 but subsequently agreed to bring it forward earlier. Now that the Department of Finance's public consultation on the issue has been concluded, the legislation needs to be accelerated. On the resumption of the Dáil this week, I will again be pressing the government to urgently bring forward legislation to address this issue. It is not acceptable that we have two different standards of protection for mortgage holders in Ireland depending on who may have bought their mortgage as part of a bundle of loans."

(CD/MH)