Good afternoon. Here’s all the news you need to know this lunchtime.

This week our resident financial guru Grainne McGuinness looks at mortgage offers and gives her few cents on what she thinks is a sensible deal.

The number of owner-occupiers sliding deeper into arrears who now find themselves two years or more behind on their repayments has increased for the 11th consecutive quarter.

The number of people dealing with their mortgage debts through the Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI) has risen in the past year, but the overall figure has been branded “pathetic” by those advocating an overhaul of debt services.

Almost three quarters of people living in insolvency and who have used a personal practitioner to liaise with their creditors have managed to agree a settlement which could leave them debt free.

Thousands of people drowning in “unsustainable” mortgage debt could have their properties bought by the State and turned into local authority units in a bid to help them stay in their homes, under a proposal put to Department of Finance officials today.  

Little has been done to increase the level of support available to people as they seek to restructure mortgage debt, writes Noeline Blackwell.

There were 448 personal bankruptcies last year according to the state’s insolvency service, amid fears many of those cases involved the repossession of family homes.

A local election candidate took to Twitter to secure accommodation for a lone mother and her young son after they were evicted from their home.

A centralised online database of "unnecessarily repossessed" homes could be operational by the end of the year, leaving potential buyers with a "moral choice" over whether to purchase them.

Struggling home owners could see themselves debt free in three months if they surrender their property.

The Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation and the consultancy firm, Grant Thornton, have teamed up to offer a ‘one-stop shop’ for mortgage customers in arrears who require insolvency services.

Only one in 10 of distressed mortgage holders will qualify for the split mortgage solution that includes a significant debt write-down, head of the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation (IMHO), David Hall, has said.

People in mortgage arrears were yesterday warned that “sticking your head in the sand will not help”.

One in four of the deals completed by AIB and the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation since November involved a debt writedown, it has emerged.

The Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation and KBC Bank Ireland have agreed to work together in a similar project to that which led to AIB writing off a portion of mortgage holders’ debts.

Thousands of mortgage holders are sleepwalking towards bank repossessions because they have not filled out their standard financial statements, according to the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation (IMHO).

The latest monthly mortgage arrears figures show the six main banks are still only dealing with the “easy options” and do not indicate how many houses were either sold voluntarily or repossessed, according to the Irish Mortgage Holders’ Organisation (IMHO).

Mortgage arrears figures to be published today will not show any significant improvement for more than 100,000 distressed households.

The Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation has said more than 1,200 people have sought assistance from their new bankruptcy service which was launched in November.

A new pilot scheme to help distressed mortgage holders comes into operation today.

An advocate for distressed mortgage holders has defended his group’s decision to accept funding from AIB to act as a mediator between it and distressed borrowers.

A fast-track and free mortgage arrears process that aims to deliver favourable solutions for up to 10,000 distressed mortgage holders could help hundreds in arrears avoid repossession.

The Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation has announced it is to provide a new mortgage negotiation service for those struggling with loan repayments.

The new Insolvency Service is being criticised for the fees charged to those struggling with debt.

A further 6,000 households found themselves struggling to pay their mortgages between July and September as the number in arrears over three months jumped to 86,000.