The Central Bank has issued figures that suggest that one in ten mortgages is in arrears of more than 90 days.
59,437 mortgage accounts are more than 180 days in arrears. That is 7.8% of the total of 764,138 private residential mortgage accounts for principal dwellings in Ireland.
The Residential Mortgage arrears and repossession statistics for the first three months of 2012 show that 10.2% are over 90 days in arrears - up from 9.2% in the last quarter of 2011.
David Hall from advocacy group New Beginning told Today with Pat Kenny that the figures equate to 10% of the entire mortgage book being in arrears for more than 90 days.
The Central Bank has said that 38,658 mortgages have been restructured.
This brings the total number of mortgages either in arrears or restructured and performing to 116,288.
The figures suggest that 52% of restructured mortgages are interest only.
In the last quarter 170 homes were repossessed.
65 of the repossessions were on foot of a court order, while 105 were voluntary surrenders or abandonments.
The banks say they have 961 repossessed homes on their books.
Meanwhile, the Irish Banking Federation has said that it recognised fully the human impact of the mortgage arrears statistics.
The federation has said that its position on personal insolvency is unchanged.
It says it should be done in a way that avoids unintended consequences, respects the repayment obligations of customers and minimises the impact on banks' balance sheets, capitalised to a large extent by taxpayers.
