Just when you thought it was safe to take out your fixed rate, mortgage rates are set to come down once again. The decision by the European Central Bank to lower rates now that "Red" Oskar Lafontaine has departed has been welcomed by the struggling economies in Germany and France, which together account for half the GDP of the euro zone.

Its reception at home has been less generous and not just by a Government worried about the effects of yet another reduction in interest rates on our booming economy.

Our banks and building societies have shown little inclination to immediately pass on the benefits of the rate cut to borrowers. Irish Permanent, one of the first to announce new rates following the changes, has been quick to take the opportunity to increase their margins - margins that are already ahead of those enjoyed by their European counterparts - by passing on only a fraction of the cut announced in Frankfurt. Of course, it was not presented in quite that way but rather as a method of boosting savers' returns on investment.

The sooner a true single European market arrives - one in which banks are happy to deal with customers across national boundaries as a matter of course - the better. Only then, it seems, will our highly profitable banks realise the full meaning of customer care.