Buy-to-let arrears have been allowed to fester

The publication this week by the Department of Finance of mortgage arrears figures highlights the festering lethargy that has characterised much of the Irish response to the financial crisis.

That it publishes slightly different figures on the same issue as the Central Bank, highlights the embedded inability of the Irish State to engage in any sort of joined-up thinking. The Central Bank data is end of March; the Department of Finance, end of April. They use slightly different presentations and slightly different emphases on the same dataset.

Why is this duplication allowed? Why is it needed? Why do we not have one official source, weekly or monthly or quarterly, from one state agency, providing one comprehensive dataset? Do the Central Bank and Department of Finance not talk to, or co-ordinate with each other?