According to the Irish Central Bank, around one fifth residential mortgages in Ireland are in a delinquent state while half of mortgage holders are in negative equity.

This makes the mortgage arrears crisis one of the most profound across the OECD.

To put this into perspective, the OECD comprising the following countries:

Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Holland, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdon and the United States.

In a new paper on the issue the Bank said many of the borrowers in a distressed state are actually in employment, although many are on temporary contracts and some have experienced a significant drop in income.

The bank added that in order to tackle the mortgage arrears crisis overall job security and labour market conditions must be tackled.