Clearing mortgage arrears by 2016 will end ‘limping’ economy

The job of sorting through mortgages in arrears and SME debts could be completed by 2016 so as to ensure the country does not “limp on” with the hangover of the banking collapse, the MacGill Summer School heard yesterday.

Fiona Muldoon, Central Bank director of credit institutions and insurance supervision, also said there was “no real alternative” for the Government but to continue delivering on the terms of the bailout deal, and to finish a domestic “clean-up” of the damage of the past decade.

Referring to the almost 35,000 mortgages that are more than 720 days in arrears, she said many households faced a turbulent future and some people will lose their homes, while others would have to pay up.