Bank must step up for customers

ONCE again we are witnessing another banking scandal where the horrific suffering of customers, real people, has been laid bare – yet the faceless bankers seem to be getting away scot-free.

It was welcome to hear at the Oireachtas finance committee that the Central Bank is “liaising” with gardai in their investigation of the tracker mortgages overcharging scandal.

It was also welcome to hear the Taoiseach give the banks a dressing down in the Dail, saying the Government had lost patience and that Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe is calling the bank chiefs into his office next week.

Leo Varadkar promised if they don’t offer some hard evidence to Mr Donohoe they are going to atone and compensate customers, that the Government will take further action.

Tough words indeed, from both the Central Bank Governor Philip Lane and the Taoiseach, but we need more than words.

The tens of thousands, possibly up to 30,000, families who suffered needlessly deserve more.

The hundreds who were thrown out of their homes deserve more and the families of those who took their own lives when the weight of pressure from the banks became too much deserve so much more.

The bank needs to prove itself or the public will lose all faith in the office, because at the moment, to quote another finance committee member from yesterday, Kieran O’donnell, it looks like the tail is wagging the dog.