The sale of mortgage loan books and the "cancer" of vulture funds means Ireland is walking blindfolded into a massive social crisis, a mortgage campaigner has said.

A new Government-backed mortgage scheme will not solve the severe shortage of homes and could further push prices up, it has been claimed

Bank chiefs are facing the threat of tougher levies or even fines if they fail to set out how and when customers ripped off by the tracker mortgage scandal will be properly repaid and compensated.

An advocacy group for people who lost their homes as a result of the tracker mortgage scandal will take “aggressive” action against banks.

Builders who sell new homes at affordable rates should pay reduced Vat, Fianna Fáil has suggested in the Dáil.

Mortgage campaigner David Hall is hoping to replicate the buy-and-rent back deal he has done with AIB with the State’s other major homeloan providers.

Official figures have shown a second successive quarterly increase in homeowners falling into early-stage arrears, with one in 10 households now behind in their mortgage payments.

Advocates for debt-saddled homeowners said they are shocked by official figures showing a rise in new early-stage mortgage arrears.

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today.

David Hall, chief executive of the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation, has warned that home repossessions will begin in earnest this year, having a potentially catastrophic effect on the housing market.

New laws protecting renters, known as the Tyrrelstown Amendment, come into force today.

Former Console boss Paul Kelly and his wife and son spent almost €500,000 on designer clothes, foreign trips, groceries, and other expenses between 2012 and 2014, an RTÉ investigation has claimed.

There has not been a decline in demand for Console’s services following last Thursday’s Prime Time exposé on the charity’s financial affairs.

Accusations that Finance Minister Michael Noonan is a “vulture-fund lover” sparked a major row at the Oireachtas Housing Committee yesterday.

The strain of losing their homes is driving growing numbers of people into a “suicidal crisis”, a suicide support group has said.

Opposition politicians have urged the Government to intervene to protect more than 100 families set to lose their homes to an investment vulture fund, after the firm behind the controversial move said it has done nothing wrong and will not back down on the issue.

Ireland remained Europe’s fastest growing economy last year after expanding at a pace not seen since the heyday of the Celtic Tiger 15 years ago.

Bankruptcy applications are expected to soar after new rules came into effect reducing to as little as a year the period that employment and credit restrictions apply to bankrupt individuals.

The Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI), which oversees the country’s new debt resolution procedures for the thousands of households still facing debt, said its latest figures show that the new regime has so far helped people struggling with an aggregate of €3.75bn in debt.

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today.

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

The five main banks have been accused of insulting Irish groups which help people in debt by funding a similar British charity to start work here.

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.

A controversial trust accused of “predatory behaviour” by a mortgage insolvency expert has reignited its appeal for funds on Facebook.

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.

The Central Bank has told the Government in a high-profile report sent to the Department of Finance that it does not want the power to force banks to slash variable mortgage interest rates.

Seven in 10 residential mortgage holders behind on their repayments are in long-term arrears — a third of which are grappling with a payment backlog of two years or more.

The Insolvency Service of Ireland has rejected claims that, because there were 162 bankruptcies in the first quarter of this year, its debt-resolution mechanisms are “not working”.

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.  

The Government has been urged to take “radical” steps to stem the flow of house repossessions, as thousands of families face up to the threat of losing their homes.

The Public Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin says the conduct of some banks in personal insolvency cases is "not good enough".

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.

The bankruptcy of a couple, who claim they were misled by a financial adviser and should never have been declared bankrupt in the first place, has been annulled.

Bank of Ireland will be pressed today to follow the lead of AIB and KBC bank and offer distressed borrowers long-term solutions to their debts.

Over 1,300 people with mortgage arrears found long-term resolutions to the problem with the help of the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation.

The number of mortgages over two years in arrears rose by 5% in the second quarter of 2014 amid warnings that through repossession, banks have "declared war" on home owners behind on their payments.

The Government is being told it must impose real and specific solutions or the number of family homes being repossessed will rise dramatically.

The Insolvency Service of Ireland has dismissed as "alarmist" calls for debt deal negotiations to be frozen or stopped amid concern about a legislative loophole that needs to be corrected.

Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation chief executive David Hall has described the Insolvency Service of Ireland (ISI) as "not fit for purpose" following the release of the latest bankruptcy figures.

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.

Mortgage customers will be able to retain their tracker mortgages if moving home, thanks to a new product announced by AIB yesterday.

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

A Dublin West by-election candidate has made a complaint to gardaí claiming that he was blackmailed by individuals over a video that shows him making alleged racial comments.