Ministers warned to act on mortgage arrears

A "significant" spike in family home repossessions is looming unless ministers get a grip on the mortgage debt crisis, an Oireachtas report has warned.

The investigation by the finance committee branded the Mortgage Arrears Resolution Process — whereby mortgages are converted into rents so families can remain in their homes — as “unfit for purpose”, and said a national plan to deal with the debt situation was needed urgently.

Committee chairperson Ciarán Lynch warned that the mortgage crisis has been allowed to descend into a “state of paralysis” and was now threatening to damage the faltering economic recovery and turf families out of their homes.