Mortgage holders who have been paying high interest rates for years are annoyed about plans for morgage interest relief for a minority on trackersMinister for Finance Michael McGrath and Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe on RTÉ's Claire Byrne show on Wednesday. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire
Budget 2024 Q&A: Your mortgage interest relief, tax, pension, education and social welfare questions answered A total of 10 ECB rate increases since the summer of 2022 has taken tracker rates up by an eye-watering 4.5 per cent and forced those with mortgage deals they were always told were as precious as gold to pay hundreds of euro more each month to their banks. Few will have any change out of €3,500 when the interest hike impact is spread over a year while many will be substantially worse off than that.
He stressed that it was “not possible or desirable for Government to attempt to mitigate in full the impact of increased interest rates” but added that “what we have experienced in the past 14 months is exceptional in the history of monetary union, and 10 successive interest rate increases have put many mortgage holders under considerable pressure.”
It is also worth noting, he says, that until recently Irish mortgage rates were “among the highest, if not the highest, in all of the euro zone. Partly because everyone else had to subsidise the ultra-cheap, near loss-making trackers. Where was the help for other mortgage customers back then?” And then, of course, there were those who will continue to pay the price for not having a tracker who were vocal in their disquiet.