Independent TD Tom Fleming called for Government action to deal with house repossessions. He said it was speculated by reliable sources that up to 30,000 repossessions would be carried out between now and 2016.

“This is ironic, given that we are approaching the centenary of the 1916 Rising, because the Proclamation of the Republic stated all of the children of the nation would be treated as equals,” he added.

Mr Fleming said court proceedings had led to “an alarming 46 per cent of cases” resulting in an order for repossession or sale of a property. In the Munster counties alone, 676 court proceedings were under way last month.

There were 84 cases in his native Kerry, while there were 115 in Taoiseach Enda Kenny's home county of Mayo, he said.

“To compound matters, borrowers in many cases lost their jobs in the recession and remain unemployed,” Mr Fleming added.

Mr Kenny said the matter was of great concern to thousands of people all over the country. More than 110,000 problem mortgages had been restructured over the last period and relevant changes made by the Government had been the most radical in many years.

These related to bankruptcy, the establishment of the insolvency service and the creation of the targets set by the Central Bank for banks to deal with the issue, he added.

“There is a solution to the vast majority of these problems,” the Taoiseach said.

“Many people have not engaged at all with the lender in the first instance, but an issue cannot be sorted out if that does not happen.”

Mr Kenny said there was a requirement on the banks to do their job and on the Central Bank in terms of the targets it had set.