Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)

This morning the almost 800,000 holders of private residential mortgage accounts have woken up to the news that at lunchtime today the ECB will announce an interest rate increase of 0.25%. As the Tánaiste knows, data from the end of last year reflect the fact that 10% of mortgage holders are in distress, a large proportion of whom are in substantial arrears, while others have restructured their loans. The proposed increase of 0.25% would mean, for a person with a mortgage of €300,000, a rise in repayments of some €40 per month.

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