Mortgages - Fix Rate or Not?

I have a had a New Year present from Bank of Ireland Mortgages. My mortgage rate has fallen from a fixed rate 5.99% to a variable rate 2.99%.
My original fixed rate mortgage was taken out with Bristol and West back in 2002. Bristol and West charged me 4.39% for a 5 year fixed rated mortgage. This original mortgage expired in 2007 and was repaced by the new fixed rate of 5.99% for two years. Bristol and West has been acquired by Bank of Ireland and rebranded. Due to the wider financial problems of Ireland - the country - Bank of Ireland have withdrawn most of their attractive fixed rate deals.

The question I now face is whether to fix my mortgage rate again - at around 4.8% for 4 or 5 years with another mortgage provider - or to carry on taking the benefit of a lower variable rate mortgage.

Nationwide Cuts Mortgage Rates

The Nationwide Building Society has cut mortgage rates by as much as 0.84% in a sign that competition is finally returning to the market for housing finance. The average cut across about 30 mortgage products of Britain's biggest building society is 0.23%. This is a welcome sign for those people who took out fixed mortgages 2 years ago when the LIBOR interest rate went above 6% following the near-collapse and Government take over of Northern Rock. At the time, bankers were unable to source funds on the wholesale markets.

The Nationwide's rate for a 4 year fixed mortgage will fall from 5.78% to 4.94%. Both HSBC and Abbey have recently tweaked their mortgage products. Various house price indices have indicated that the housing market is now past its bottom encouraging lenders to re-enter the market for 90 and 95% loan to value mortgages. The best deals remain for those borrowing less than 60% of their property's value.