Homeowners’ debts still growing

THE home loans of at least 18,000 “restructured” mortgage holders continue to increase as they struggle to pay their debts, it emerged yesterday.

And consumers are also scrambling to keep up repayments on other loans as well as paying off credit card debt.

The Central Bank of Ireland’s director of consumer protection, Bernard Sheridan, said yesterday that while mortgage arrears has become one of the biggest issues facing the country, data on mortgage loan arrears “does not show the full extent of the problem”.