Noonan: Arrears crisis 'has reached turning point'

Finance Minister Michael Noonan has said that the mortgage arrears crisis has now reached a "turning point".

Minister Noonan was commenting on figures released yesterday which showed the first fall since 2009 in mortgages with arrears of over 90 days.

The minister said the banking sector is now "normalising" with the financial crisis "almost over" and meeting the targets set for restructuring home loans.

However he said that despite the positive signals, there is no room for complacency.

"I think that's a very significant turning point - 86,0000 mortgages have now been restructured, half of those were mortgages not in arrears," he said.

"That's also a good policy - to move before the mortgages slip into arrears.

"It's moving on, but we're not being complacent about it," he added.