The Finance Minister Michael Noonan will meet the heads of the six Irish banks in a series of meetings between today and Thursday.

H is expected to pressure them into cutting their variable interest rates.

Mr Noonan will meet with the chief executive of AIB David Duffy today, whose bank is due to pass on rate cuts to its customers and those at EBS from next month.

Minister Noonan is expected to confront the CEOs with the findings of a report he requested from the Central Bank - which compares each of the banks variable rates with the rest of the market.

Bank of Ireland and Permanent TSB are expected to bear the brunt of the pressure, after both cut rates recently but only for new customers.

Ian Guider is markets editor with the Sunday Business Post.

He told Newstalk Breakfast most banks will probably cut rates by 0.25% over the summer.