Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It is disappointing that the Minister is ruling it out at this point because the full impact of interest rate hikes is yet to be felt, with retail banks still to pass them on fully through fixed and variable rates. Bank of Ireland has made announcements about its fixed rates.

It is widely expected that this position will change in the coming months. The picture is mixed. Nearly 250,000 borrowers are on tracker mortgages and are directly exposed to the ECB rate hikes. The average tracker rate stands at 4.63% compared with 1.15% last June and many tracker rate borrowers will see their mortgage repayments increase by thousands of euro this year. Some 44% of outstanding mortgages are on variable rates and are likely to see an immediate increase in mortgage interest costs when rates rise. For fixed rate mortgages, the fixation periods are relatively short, with borrowers refinancing at higher rates after a shorter period.

We have worked with the Parliamentary Budget Office.

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