Vulture funds have swooped in on over a quarter of the country’s most distressed mortgages as concern over their operation continues to grow.

Vulture funds now own the loans of more than a quarter of the country’s most indebted mortgage holders, in long-term arrears of more than two years.

Mary Fitzpatrick smiles down in splendid isolation from the ESB poles of Main Street, Swords. She is alone among Euro election candidates in occupying high vantage on the thoroughfare. All the other posters are for the locals, candidates of a lesser political god, but perhaps one that has far more relevance to the lives of the voters.

A MAJOR auctioneering body has expressed concerns about the possible exclusion of Irish property valuers from the State’s new toxic debt agency.