New Central Bank figures show that over half of mortgage accounts in long-term arrears made no repayment towards their mortgage over the past two years.
The average outstanding balance of accounts making no repayment last year was €240,410 and the majority of these accounts were more than five years in arrears.
In 2021, just over 22% of accounts paid some but less than 50% of the contracted amount.
The remainder were paying more than 50% towards their mortgage in both years.
The figures show that the level of such borrowers classified as 'not co-operating' has fallen.
At end of last year, lenders had classified 15,000 or 55% of all accounts in long-term arrears as not co-operating, down from just under 16,000 accounts at the end of the previous year.
Today's Central Bank data shows that the number of accounts in long term mortgage arrears is continuing to fall, down 12% in the 12 months to June 2022.
"For the first time since the Central Bank started its data collection on mortgage arrears, long term mortgage arrears have fallen below 25,000 accounts," said Colm Kincaid, Director of Consumer Protection at the Central Bank.
"This is the result of hard work by borrowers and firms to reduce this number, particularly over the last twelve months.
"It shows that by working together within a defined regulatory framework there can be solutions that work for both borrowers and firms, even in cases of borrowers with low affordability and arrears that have lasted for a number of years," he added.
Today's Central Bank figures will provoke anger in many people, Padraic Kissane, a financial adviser and a member the Irish Banking Culture Board, has said.
The figures include people who have paid nothing towards their mortgage in over ten years, he added.
"There are people gaming the system," he said.
"The one difficulty with people doing nothing is that they are getting rid of the one tool that can help them which is time," he said.
He said the courts are "too lenient" to people granting stays and repossession orders.
"If a bank can't recover its asset, then you wonder why banks like Ulster Bank and KBC are leaving the market. Here you have people paying nothing to their mortgage. If they were renters by the council, they would be thrown out," he added.
