Speaking on his way into Cabinet today, Finance Minister Michael McGrath said banks may have been slow to introduce the rises – but insisted they have also shown “forbearance” in hitting mortgage customers with the increases.
“That said, we have seen the banks exercise some forbearance in terms of not fully passing on to variable rate products, and indeed to the new pricing of fixed rate mortgage products, the full impact of the ECB changes. “[They can expect] that that level of return would reflect changes in interest rates at ECB level and I think we have now seen a move in that regard today,” he said.
“For us now, our focus really is on the budget in the autumn and just striking the right balance between providing support to businesses and households while at the same time not doing anything that would start to push inflation back up again,” he said.