The number of private residential mortgages in arrears has continued to fall - marking the eighth consecutive quarter of decline.

That is according to new figures from the Central Bank, which has published its Residential Mortgage Arrears and Repossessions Statistics for second quarter of the year.

They show the number of homes in mortgage arrears for more than 90 days has fallen to a three and a half year low of 70,299.

The bank says some 118,593 mortgage accounts were classified as restructured by the end of June, which is a quarter-on-quarter increase of 1.9%.

Of these, 86.3% were deemed to be meeting the terms of their restructure arrangement - which the bank says highlights "continued progress" in this area.

While buy-to-let mortgage accounts in arrears over 90 days also fell by 5.2% during the second quarter of the year.

Senior counsel and founder of New Beginning, Ross McGuire, says this latest decline is good news.