One reader reveals the devastation caused to his family by the tracker scandal

TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe were in chipper mood out and about yesterday, as the 12-day Dáil break loomed.

It may be Halloween but not even the spectre of the tracker scandal could dampen their spirits. As the weekend beckoned, the pair seemed pretty comfortable with the motion that “moral persuasion” and the prospect of more “admonishment” should be enough to bring banks to heel when they are brought back for further chastisement in January.

Yet a wait-and-see attitude is not likely to make those whose money has yet to be returned, and whose lives have been destroyed by the banks, sleep any easier.

The Taoiseach said this week that he “would not like to live in a country, quite frankly, where politicians could order in the police or the fraud squad in the way that some people have suggested”. No one is suggesting that we establish a Stalinist omnipotent state.

All the same, when tens of thousands of Irish people faced losing their homes and had their health and lives destroyed through no fault of their own, one might hope that there would be grounds for consultation with the Garda about the possibility of redressing the balance of justice.

Mr Varadkar and Mr Donohoe appear still to have a belief in the banks to the extent that the latter will make good on their intentions. To date, the banks have not done much to justify such confidence.

There is now a grave onus on them to address the serious deficit of trust in relation to how they treat customers.