Nearly 12% of residential mortgages are now in arrears. That is according to new figures out today.

The Central Bank data shows that 1,000 homeowners a month are falling into arrears with their mortgages. However the rate of increase in arrears is beginning to slow.

The Central Bank says just over 94,000 mortgages held by owner-occupiers were in arrears at the end of December. That is up by over 3,000 from last September.

The figures show that 11.9% of residential mortgages are in arrears while almost 19% of buy-to-let property owners are in trouble.

Slowest increase since 2009

It says that the increase of 3.4% in the number of for principal dwelling houses (PDH) in arrears of over 90 days is the slowest quarter-on-quarter rate of increase since these statistics were first collected in September 2009. The rate of increase in the number of PDH accounts in arrears of over 180 days also slowed to 5.4%.

But the number in arrears of over 720 days increased by 14.1% in the 4th quarter of last year.

The data on buy-to-let properties shows that 28,421 - 18.9% - were in arrears of more than 90 days as at the end of December 2012. This compares to 27,018 accounts at the end of September.

It also shows that 21,800 of buy-to-let mortgages were restructured as at the end of December last year.

Secretary-General of the Department of Finance is John Moran.

He told the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee that the government wants the banks to intervene earlier with people who are struggling to pay.