Kathleen Barrington has been pushing the idea for some time
[broken link removed]
The banks have long argued that there is simply no demand in Ireland for them. They do offer 5 and 10 year rates, but the take-up is very poor. The premium to be built into a 30 year mortgage would be excessive.
But I suppose a good start would be a fixed 10 year mortgage. After 10 years, in normal circumstances, one would expect some of the capital to have been repaid, the borrower's income to have increased, and the value of the property to have increased. It's usually the first 10 years when people have a problem with their mortgage. After that, they don't really need to security and straighjacket of a long fix.
Brendan