equity release - some advice on approaching bank

I have an investment mortgage of €115k on a property worth ~€300k. I have 15 years left on this mortgage.

I have quite a few personal loans + credit card balances totaling around €25k (got married this year!)

I want to increase my mortgage to €140k to clear these off, and hopefully improve my cashflow each month. Before I approach the bank I just want to make sure I'm prepared, so have these questions....

a) should I tell the bank (EBS) why I want the money ? Or should I say that I am spending the money on improving the property ?
b) are they likely to require getting the house revalued ? Not a problem, but the least amount of hassle/delay the better.
c) from an income tax point of view the annual interested is taken into consideration. Increasing my mortgage is going to reduce my tax bill a little, but is this a legit way of doing this? I don't want to cause any issues with revenue! And if this is legit, maybe I should increase the mortgage to the max and pay a big lump off my PPR mortgage ?

Any advice from someone who has done similar recently would be appreciated.

PS I know that in the long term this isn't the ideal way to pay for "lifestyle" loans - but I wont be getting married every year !

A) no problem with debt consolidation although you might want to take the opportunity to shop round to make sure you are getting the best rate (4.15% is the best tracker on an investment mortgage of less than €250,000).
B) yes, if the last valuation on the house is more than 6 months old.
C) you can only offset the mortgage interest against the rental income on monies used to buy, improve or renovate the property so only the existing mortgage of €115,000 will qualify.

Sarah

www.rea.ie