"Mortgage rates are much higher in Ireland because deposit rates are much higher"

This argument is often made, and it's just not true. It may well have been true a few years ago when Irish banks had to pay big rates to attract deposits and they also had to pay a premium to the government for the deposit guarantee, but it's not true any longer.

Here are the [broken link removed] as of February 2015



Curiously, they have the data for every country, except Ireland. But the Central Bank provides comparable data for Ireland [broken link removed].


Here is a summary.


We are the same, when they are directly comparable. We are 0.5% dearer for the agreed maturity category, but the Eurozone figures are for 1 year, whereas the Irish figures are for up to two years. Rates tend to be higher for longer durations.

Here are the AIB rates



Certainly a lot lower than the Eurozone rates.

And here are the [broken link removed]




So our two biggest mortgage lenders are paying around the same as the rest of the Eurozone.

ptsb is paying a bit more