Central Bank figures report more than 75,000 homes behind in mortgate repayments

One in 10 family homes around the country are in mortgage arrears, latest figures show.

More than 76,400 householders are behind on their home loan repayments as they struggle to make ends meet, a Central Bank report says.

Of these, more than 53,000 - or 7% of all family home mortgages in the State - owe more than three months repayments.

The proportion of families in arrears has been coming down, however, over the past four years and dropped slightly again at the start of this year.

Figures also show that almost 121,000 mortgages have been restructured - or renegotiated to make them more affordable.

Repayments were being met in the vast majority of these.

Almost 18,000 mortgages in Ireland, for both family homes and buy-to-let borrowings, are in the hands of "unregulated loan owners", the Central Bank says.

About 7,500 of these are in arrears of almost two years or more.

About 30,000 more mortgages are held by regulated credit firms, rather than banks, although the scale of arrears is less with these lenders.

Michael McGrath, Fianna Fáil's finance spokesman, has demanded more be done to resolve "the stubbornly high number of long-term arrears cases".

"Several years into this crisis, it is remarkable that 65% of all family home mortgages in arrears have still not been restructured," he said.

"With 33,000 family home mortgages in arrears of two years or more, the Government and the Central Bank need to place a greater emphasis on resolving these cases."