The most recently available figures from the Central Bank note almost 50,000 mortgages were in arrears for more than three months last March. The majority of them were over six months behind in their payments, the Irish Times reported. Even allowing for no increase in the rate of people falling into arrears, it is likely that by the end of September this number will have exceeded 60,000, and this doesn’t include those people who have agreed some form of restructuring with their lender. Meanwhile, property prices continue to fall, putting more homeowners into negative equity.

A committee representing so- called Pik note loanholders in Eircom has written to the board of its Cayman Islands-based parent stating they have every reason to believe the company is insolvent. In the latest twist to the Eircom financial saga, they have also questioned how the parent company intends to repay its debt. In addition, the committee has accused the directors of being in breach of their duty of care towards them and have warned they will take legal or other action if necessary to protect their position.

UK bank Lloyds has teamed up with Dublin company Green Property to help manage Irish commercial properties which have been put into receivership by the bank, the Irish Times reported. Green will offer property management services to receivers on assets in the €13 billion commercial property book at what was formerly Bank of Scotland (Ireland). It is estimated that properties supporting up to €1 billion of commercial loans in Lloyds’ Irish subsidiary could fall under Green’s management if receivers choose to avail of the company’s services.

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm faced the final round of questions from creditors in Boston yesterday before a final decision on whether he should be discharged from bankruptcy, the Irish Times reported. Public trustee Kathleen Dwyer has set August 31st as the last time objections can be raised to his discharge – which, if granted, would effectively shield him from multiple claims.

The intervention of the European Central Bank this week to buy Italian and Spanish bonds has successfully dragged the two countries’ cost of borrowing to sustainable levels. However the threat posed by contagion in the euro zone’s debt crisis is far from over, with analysts warning yields could rise again to danger levels (generally understood to be 6 per cent rates on 10-year bonds) if the ECB does not continue to buy the debt of both states in the short run before a longer-term solution is agreed, the Irish Times reported.

An Irish academic best known for correctly calling the property crash four years ago has raised fresh concerns over a potential tsunami of debt default from "high rolling" professional classes, the Guardian Irish Business blog reported. Professor Morgan Kelly said there is about €11bn (£9.6bn) tied up in domestic loans that were handed out to lawyers, doctors and estate agents for homes they can no longer afford – loans the banks are not counting as problematic.

Allied Irish Bank Plc chairman David Hodgkinson has proposed a buy-out scheme to help homeowners, who are struggling to meet their mortgage obligations, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. Speaking at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co. Donegal, Mr. Hodgkinson outlined the plan, which AIB have presented to the Central Bank. Under the scheme, the bank would use capital injected by the government, to buy back the homes of mortgage holders and renting them back to the occupants.

New laws on bankruptcy enacted last week have done little to deter bankruptcy tourism, the Independent reported. Under the old law, bankrupts in Ireland were subjected to at least 12 years of punitive restrictions, and possibly for life and even in death. A bankrupt remained a bankrupt unless discharged by the court. That could only happen if at least a portion of the debt was repaid, along with any costs that may have arisen.

eircom’s new business plan projections leaves little doubt as to what the Irish telecom group’s subordinated debt holders would face in a planned debt restructuring, the Financial Times reported on a Debtwire story. The plan, presented last Friday (29 July) to senior lenders, put the writing on the wall -- over EUR 1bn of debt could be written off, with severe losses for investors in the company’s junior debt tranches.

The number of people signing on the Live Register rose slightly last month, according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO), the Irish Times reported. The standardised unemployment rate rose by 0.1 per cent to 14.3 per cent in July as an additional 1,500 people signed on to the Live Register. Overall, there were 470,284 people on the Live Register last month, up by 0.7 per cent or 34,600 individuals over the year. This increase is 1.1 per cent less than that recorded in June and 8 per cent lower than in July 2010.