Lenihan not worried about potential 'mortgage meltdown'

Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan said today that he is confident there will not be a huge increase in mortgage defaulters, which could render the bank bailout fund inadequate.

Anglo Irish Bank boss Alan Dukes has said that the €35bn fund for the banks will not be enough.

However, Minister Lenihan disagrees, saying he took advice from the governor of the Central Bank.

Minister Lenihan claims that as the economy improves, less people will be defaulting on their mortgages.

"The first point to make about mortgage defaults is that it tends to correlate very closely to unemployment," he said. "Unemployment has stabilised.

"I don’t accept the mortgage meltdown thesis."