Latest figures from the Central Bank show many people may have been using their SSIA money to pay off their credit card bills.
The bank says there was an 'extremely sharp fall' in the rate of growth in credit card debt between April and May from 17.1% to 11.5%. Payments to credit card companies rose by €217m in May.
'This would indicate that maturing SSIAs may have been the major factor behind the rise in payments received, which in turn, resulted in the largest ever fall in the level of outstanding indebtedness,' the Central Bank said.
Growth in mortgage lending was slower than the same period last year and the annual rise slowed to 20% in May from 21% in April.
Residential mortgage borrowing stands at €130 billion.
