It shows how little I know about politics and its mysterious workings. I thought the game was about the “art of the possible” and in a scenario where the “possible” wasn’t possible, about keeping your head down and not inviting questions.

But there’s the wily old fox from Limerick, Michael Noonan, not only inviting the banks in for a second round of “discussions” about what they’re going to do about cutting standard variable mortgage rates, but actually parading the process in the media.

I’m stumped, because first, he’s not going to get any more appreciable movement out of the banks in the near future; secondly, he’s not going to use his long-threatened big stick and impose a penal levy in the forthcoming budget, if they don’t’; and thirdly, it’s debatable as a shareholder in most of the banks concerned, whether it’s actually in his financial interest - as distinct from his political interest - for them to do so.

Take AIB, the biggest mortgage beast in the jungle, and the one where the Minister has most ownership leverage. AIB, can justifiably argue, it’s already reduced its standard variable interest rate three times, and has been the only one to do so unambiguously.

"I’m mystified as to why the Minister didn’t just call the banking lads in for a quiet bowl of soup, under the radar"

The bank’s new chief executive, Bernard Byrne, made it clear at the time of its interim results in early August, that there would be no further substantial movement for some time.

He pointed out, as you can be sure he’s done to the Minister and his advisers long before this week, that the bank has a reasonable ambition to achieve net interest margins of over 2%; that the current blended cost of funds is close to 1.5%, and that their latest standard variable mortgage rate is 3.65% - do the math there...

So, no great public concessions in store there for the Minister from the largest provider in the market.

But he’s unlikely to secure any great wins from the other providers either: 

Bank of Ireland, where the State holds much more modest ownership leverage of 14%, has consistently batted away any pressure for a reduction in its high altitude 4.5% standard variable rate and has stuck doggedly to its guns of focussing on fixed rate offers

Meanwhile, both Ulster Bank, where he has no ownership leverage, and Permanent TSB, where he retains a 75% stake, have actually moved away from the standard variable mortgage model .

So, while they both have reduced rates by between 0.75% and 1% for some existing and new customers, these more attractive prices are only available for those who have various significant degrees of equity in their home.

In other words, good-ish news for those who paid off a fair slice of their home loan or have a sizeable deposit for new home in their back pocket, but the rates on offer are no longer standard for all categories of borrower.

I’m mystified as to why the Minister didn’t just call the banking lads in for a quiet bowl of soup, under the radar. The, if some pesky journalist or opposition spokesman had subsequently reminded him about this pre-budget, second-round commitment, he could defuse the issue quickly.

But here he’s gone and raised expectations all over again, expectations which are not going to be met, in the way most mortgage holders and the general public understand them.

Than again, I really don’t know how politics works any more. Maybe in a noisy world where attentions spans are shortening - it’s simply sufficient to be seen to be doing something...