Figures provided by the Department of Finance show that almost 17% of Irish residential mortgages are in arrears, with a total of 11.5% in arrears for greater than 90 days.

According to the Green Party, the pace of restructuring is painfully slow and demonstrates a failure on the part of the banks to meaningfully engage in what has been a flawed process from the start.

Green Party Finance Spokesperson, Mark Dearey, said: "What these latest figures show is a complete failure by this Government to get to grips with the scale of the mortgage crisis in this country. When the Government launched its Mortgage Arrears Plan in March I criticised it as failing to aggressively tackle the challenge of distressed mortgages and as handing too much power to banks which created the mess in the first place.

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"By putting all the cards in the debt resolution mechanism in the hands of the banks, the Government has abdicated any meaningful role in securing equitable and essential debt relief for distressed homeowners. As long as dangerously high levels of mortgage debt persist, with 1 in 6 mortgages in arrears, we will continue to witness lethargic consumer spending and a reluctance by private individuals to engage in economic activity. The balance sheets of the banks remain the ticking time bomb under our nascent economic recovery and it’s no longer enough for the Central Bank and Michael Noonan to keep ignoring it and hoping that it will go away.

"It is time for the Government to stand up and admit the Mortgage Arrears Plan for what it is – a failed policy which has barely scratched the surface of the simmering debt crisis."

(CD/IT)