GOVERNMENT PLANS TO tackle mortgage arrears are a “horrific step for mortgage holders”, David Hall of the Irish Mortgage Holders Organisation has said.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Hall said government had a “golden opportunity” to help those in distress but that he was left “bitterly disappointed” by what was proposed.

The Mortgage Arrears Resolution outlined a number of options which banks could pursue, including split mortgages, payment deferrals, and debt write-off.

Yesterday’s measures applied to ACC, AIB, Bank of Ireland, KBC Bank, Permanent TSB and Ulster Bank in relation to both principal dwelling homes and buy to let mortgages.

Hall said that these solutions were not prescriptive, however, and that it was the banks that determined what course of action should be taken.

Referring to 2011′s Keane report as the “last flag flown by government in relation to solutions”, he said that only two of these had since been implemented by lending institutions – split mortgages and mortgage to rent.

The progress is in the figures. Facts and statistics speak, not fiction and not spin, and the figures from the Central Bank prove clearly the number of arrears.

“It’s a horrific step for mortgage holders and they have most certainly been thrown into the lions den,” Hall said. “This is all one way traffic. This is all power to one group of people again – banks.”