AIB will give 16 years max to Age 65. Nonsense.
Can I ask why this is nonsense? I am sure some actuary within AIB has done a risk assessment on this and determine this is the maximum age they feel comfortable providing a mortgage until. I appreciate it may not suit your personal circumstances, but I am sure there is an inherent risk in having a mortgage beyond a certain age - whether that be 60, 65 or 70. The bank is under no obligation to lend to anyway - its a business transaction at the end of the day
And this is for people with 35% LTV on a 1.2m house. So this is saying we cant get the savings we require.
To be honest there are two elements to mortgages. First is LTV which in your case is fantastic, but the second part is affordability for the duration of the mortgage. There is obviously concerns with the bank here, and they feel an inherent risk about lending beyond a certain point. Surely you can accept this point.
Statistically, I am sure someone who is in a position to finish paying their mortgage by 50 is a lessor risk than someone who will not pay their mortgage by 70, all other things remaining equal.
I have no idea of your current levels of savings/investments, what your pension looks like and whether its defined benefit or defined contribution (or whether you have one for that matter). I do wonder if you have pumped too much of your overall savings into a house and left yourself short in other areas!! It might be worth assessing this point. If not, maybe you could look at reducing the overall debt by say 50k, and this may bring you back into the timeline AIB is willing to support.
Personally, I would suggest doing a full financial review, showing all assets, investments, savings etc clashed against all debts and taking this to a broker who may be able to advise on which banks may be willing to deal with mortgages >65 years. I would also suggest calling into a branch to talk to someone in person, as its obviously easier to put your case forward in person.
I understand you are frustrated at this. But I do believe you have to accept there is an additional risk with a longer term mortgage when a person goes above 60 years of age. Unless you are in a rock solid public sector role, there is an inherent risk here, whether be employment, health, retirement etc that cannot be ignored. If you are on a defined benefit pension, you may be able to get them to consider taking a final payment from your lump sum for example?
I will add that I was equally as frustrated with AIB in Sept 2010 when I went for a mortgage and was declined within 2 minutes as I did not have a permanent job, which was one of their 3 gating criteria. However, I did have to accept I was an additional risk at a time when things were delicate for the Irish banks.