Plans are to be unveiled by the government to deal with the mortgage arrears crisis. They will see banks given targets on the number of distressed mortgages they should deal with every 3 months.

Banks will be told to offer the best option including interest only, split mortgages, longer terms and in some cases debt write-downs.

These new plans are leading to fears that repossessions will increase. However the Taoiseach Enda Kenny says that will not happen in the vast majority of cases.

186,000 mortgages, valued at about €17 billion are now in distress. The coalition is most worried about 100,000 of these where homeowners have been unable to meet repayments for some time.

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