Variable and tracker mortgage holders can expect a rise in their repayments, as the European Central Bank is set to increase interest rates.
It would be the first increase since 2011, as the ECB tries to grapple with rising inflation as well as slower economic growth.
Rates are expected to go up by a quarter of one percent - and possibly even as high as half of one percent.
Adjunct Professor at Trinity College Dublin, John Fitzgerald, explains why the ECB is taking this course of action:
''Prices are rising so rapidly. And the way to control the growth in prices in the long run is to tighten monetary policy that is to raise interest rates, which will slow activity and take money out of the economy. So there's less money chasing the same amount of good. So that's the reason why interest rates have got to raise the question is by how much and how rapidly.''
