4  Central Bank of Ireland - RESTRICTED There is clearly a high level of personal distress in individual borrower circumstances that are reflected in these numbers. However, particularly where borrowers are not engaging, and the hole is simply getting bigger, a functioning secured lending market has to have meaning to that security.
There are costs to all other borrowers through the impact on secured lending pricing together with financial stability risks where this security is undermined. In other words, the high level of non-performing mortgage loans continues to affect the functioning of the Irish mortgage market today.