New figures from the Central Bank show that the number of people falling behind with their mortgage repayments increased again in the final three months of last year.
The bank said 9.2% of residential mortgages were more than 90 days behind with their repayments in the three months to the end of December.
This is up from 8.1% at the end of September last year.
The data also show the number of restructured mortgages has increased by 6.7% over the same period.
There are now 74,379 accounts categorised as restructured.
Of this total, 36,797 are not in arrears and are performing as per the restructure arrangement.
During the fourth quarter of 2011, 133 properties were repossessed by lenders, a drop of 18% compared to the previous quarter.
Of these, 50 were on foot of a repossession order granted by the courts, while the remaining 83 were repossessions following voluntary surrender or abandonment by borrowers.
Banks and building societies sold 118 repossessed properties during the fourth quarter, leaving them with a stock of 895 repossessed but unsold properties.
