Government needs to face mortgage crisis

The mortgage crisis has reached record depths, according to the latest figures released by Central Bank.

Some 14% of the 777,000 residential mortgages are either in arrears by over three months, or else have been restructured by extending the repayment period, or by accepting interest-only payments.

Even those figures tend to underplay the depth of the crisis, because they hide the number of people having such repayment difficulties that they are a month or two in arrears. In addition, more than half of those who have had their repayments restructured are again in arrears.