TAOISEACH LEO VARADKAR has ruled out introducing immediate mortgage relief, but says that the Government will examine the measure as part of Budget 2024.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald called for the Taoiseach to introduce mortgage relief immediately, saying that all European Central Bank (ECB) rate hikes were “body blows” to families.

“Every hike is a shock that is becoming harder and harder to absorb,” McDonald said.

She called for the Government to support a Sinn Féin motion to introduce mortgage relief, with TDs due to vote on the matter this evening.

At its most recent meeting in March, the ECB opted to hike rates by 0.5%, marking the sixth interest rate increase since summer 2022. It is expected to announce whether rates will increase again in early May.

Continuous rate hikes by the ECB have lead to higher mortgage repayments for tracker mortgage customers.

Speaking during Leaders’ Questions today, Varadkar said that a lot of mortgage customers are now seeing letters from their bank with rate increases “every few weeks”.

However, he said that any tax changes were a matter for the yearly budget and that the Government would not act until then.

“I absolutely understand the impact that’s having on a lot of households,” Varadkar said.

“But tax measures are a matter for the budget. When it comes for the budget, we will consider all the different suggestions and ideas for tax concessions and there will be a tax package in the budget.

“We will consider mortgage interest relief as part of that tax package.”

Varadkar was critical of McDonald’s proposal, saying that while Sinn Féin were calling for a time-bound relief, the party had not indicated how long this would last.

“You don’t say when it’s time bound for, because you can’t predict that mortgage interest rates are going to go down again,” Varadkar said.

“We had a lot of people for a very long time who had the benefit of very low interest rates and now interest rates are coming back up to something quite close to the historical average and we need to be honest with people about that.

“We can’t guarantee people that interest rates are going to go back down to 1% again or 0% again, that mightn’t happen.”

Reacting to his comments, McDonald said that Varadkar was telling mortgage holders to “sit tight” until September or October. 

“I want to put to you that that’s a wholly unrealistic ask of households in the grip of a cost-of-living crisis,” McDonald said, adding that this was an unacceptable response by the Government.