Irish Permanent and First Active have cut their fixed mortgage rates by 0.25-0.49 percentage points. This follows a year of uninterrupted increases in mortgage interest rates and reflects the hope that interest rates may have peaked. First Active's new rates kick in from January 8th. Irish Permanent has the lowest one-year fixed rate on the market at 4.94 per cent. That puts it marginally ahead of Ulster Bank and Bank of Ireland, which offer 4.95 per cent.