“While we maintain that there is little evidence of the euro-zone debt crisis spilling into the real economy at present, we see little chance of the ECB tightening monetary policy in the near future,” said David Page, economist at Investec.

See Historic ECB Rates here

The 2 year fixed rate at KBC is currently 3.29% - it is expected to rise to 3.45%
The variable rate mortgage will rise from 3.24% to 3.65 %

See the details of the EBS Rate Rises here

See the latest mortgage rates on Moneyguideireland.com

If you believe the panic merchants in the Independent - you’d think it was a major crisis. Headlines like “Thousands at risk of rate hikes as AIB bars mortgage switchers”

According to Central Bank statistics - the total number of outstanding residential mortgages in Ireland at the end of September 2009 was 791,634.
The total amount outstanding was €78.6 Billion Euro.
That equates to just under €100,000 per mortgage account.

An accurate breakdown of how many people are on tracker mortgages and how many are on standard variable rates is hard to find .

The Irish Independent on Jan 28 2010 wrote that

“statistics compiled by a leading lender, which did not want to be named, show there are about 350,000 people with standard variable rate mortgages. Trackers account for between 140,000 and 200,000 of all mortgages. ”
The same article stated that “Between 80,000 and 100,000 people have fixed-rate mortgages, the figures show. This means that standard variable rate mortgages represent around 56pc of the market.”

So based on those figures - if there are 200,000 trackers and 100,000 fixed rate loands - that leaves 491,000. borrowers who must be on variable rate mortgages.

The same newspaper in Oct 2008 quotes Frank Conway, director of the Irish Mortgage Corporation who said “Since tracker mortgages were introduced about six years ago, anywhere from 350,000 to 400,000 tracker mortgages were taken up by Irish homeowners”.

If this figure is true - and there are also about 100,000 on fixed rates - then the total on standard variable rates will be around 291,000

EBS are still taking on mortgage switchers - and offering a fee free option too. The rates at EBS range from 2.55% variable to 4.2% for a 5 year fixed rate mortgage. For anyone on variable rates over 4% - now is probably your last chance to switch lenders.

KBC will also take on switchers from other lenders . They are offering up to €1000 towards legal fees (min loan €75k) Variable and fixed rates available. See all the Best Mortgage Rates Compared Here

The market share of mortgages in Ireland is broken down roughly as follows;
PTSB 19%
boi 18%
aib 18%
Ulster/ First Active 14%
ebs 10%
kbc 9%
Halifax 6%
nib 3%
Nationwide 2%

Minister for Social and Family Affairs Mary Hanafin said yesterday she would publish a review of the mortgage scheme before Easter following a four-fold increase in the number of people receiving the emergency payment.

The number of people receiving mortgage interest supplement at the end of December 2009 was 15,100, compared with 4,000 at the end of 2008. The scheme cost the exchequer €60 million in 2009 and this figure is expected to rise as the number of homeowners losing their jobs is forecast to increase this year.

The scheme operates to provide financial support to people who are unable to meet their mortgage repayments due to a change in circumstances, such as loss of a job.

It is designed to be a short-term payment covering the interest portion of a home loan.

Ms Hanafin said she was considering making homeowners who get into trouble with their repayments go to their bank or financial institution to agree a repayment deal before becoming eligible to make an application for any mortgage supplement payments.

She said we are probably the only government paying out that amount of interest for people and the first port of call probably should be the bank or if they are not able to do that then the Monetary Advice and Budget Service should be asked to act on their behalf with the bank.

Ms Hanafin said the €60 million paid out under the scheme was “dead money” because banks had no incentive to renegotiate terms with clients when they got the relief.

She said her department was looking at whether this money could be used in a better way while still ensuring that people’s homes were protected from repossession.

The Government’s review may also remove the current 30-hour work limit and replace it with a means test.

See some of the better mortgage rates available from PTSB’s competitors - but will these low rates be around for much longer?