Irish mortgages arrears steady as COVID-19 payment breaks near end

The number of Irish homeowners in arrears for more than 90 days was steady at 5.6% at the end of June, data showed on Monday as repayment breaks aimed at keeping mortgage holders from falling into arrears due to the COVID-19 crisis begin to come to an end.

Irish banks provided 89,000 repayment breaks of up to six months since March, 43,000 of which were still in place last month. Just over 41,000 customers were classified as being in arrears over 90 days at the end of June, Monday's central bank data showed.

Most of the accounts in arrears date back to the financial crisis a decade ago, with 9,591 accounts overdue by between 2 and 5 years, 11,936 in arrears by between 5 and 10 years and 4,701 behind in their payments for more than 10 years.

(Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Alex Richardson)