Leo, we’ve never had any trust in the banks
LEO Varadkar said that ‘it will take a long time for the public to regain trust in the banks’ because of the ‘tracker-mortgage’ scandal. What trust?
No citizen in their right senses has ever had ‘trust’ in Irish banking going back to the days before we realised a mortgage from them only meant we were ultimately paying double back to the banks when we wanted to put a roof over our children’s heads.
When and where was trust in banks ever known in Irish life as a given prior to the Taoiseach’s utterance?
Not one of those responsible for taking advantage of customers will see the inside of a jail cell or even a courtroom.
Please convince the nation that there is more to this than people simply getting their money back and convince them they will, next time, in court, because of bankers, see their dignity and rights and property restored. At least promise that, Leo. ROBERT SULLIVAN,
Bantry, Co. Cork. ...ISN’T it just typical that the disgraceful actions by the banks in the latest tracker mortgage controversy will go unpunished provided they pay compensation to their customers.
This was a decision by bank executives to impose these sanctions against customers without any regard to their customers’ welfare.
In some cases people lost their homes, marriages broke up and family units were decimated and some people even lost their lives through suicide because of pressure from these financial institutions.
No amount of compensation can remedy these tragic events.
Yet, the Minister for Finance is prepared to take the word of these same executives to compensate customers without any sanctions being imposed.
Surely the gardaí should be investigating these decisions as it wasn’t accidental, but a deliberate move to take money from vulnerable customers.
For most of the citizens of this State, it would appear that the road to honesty is the road to poverty, especially where the banks are concerned. P. DOYLE, Cashel, Co. Tipperary.
What about us?
IT’S heartening to find our politicians are dealing with the current banking mortgage scandal in a firm manner and demanding that bank management apologise for its misguided policy.
This political stance indicates that TDs can act quickly by insisting that others to put their house in order immediately.
However, when it comes to scandals that are deliberately enacted by politicians themselves against pensioners then they offer ludicrous excuses as to why nothing can be done to restore the justice removed and denied.
In 2012 our Oireachtas agreed to enact legislation that financially discriminates against contributory old-age pensioners. It leaves many pensioners, mostly women, substantially out of pocket every week of their lives.
This ‘State-imposed’ damage must and needs to be redressed, but successive governments have indicated that they have no intention of doing the right thing.
When questioned, about the inequity they imposed, the politicians claim that there are inadequate State funds available. The anonymous and faceless bondholders or those political chums already on fat pensions/top-ups were not ‘insulted’ with this type of answer.
By its conspiracy to discriminate and abandon, the State has forfeited its entitlement to govern Irish pensioners.
Pensioners must now band together and select new independent supportive candidates, one to stand in every constituency and local authority area, putting pension entitlement on the top of their agenda.
DENIS O’HIGGINS, Aghintamy, Co. Monaghan.
Kind to animals
WHATEVER about governments and states, I hope animal lovers will make their voices heard for Catalan independence. The region’s proud record on animal welfare contrasts sharply with that of Spain. This was demonstrated glaringly in 2010 when Catalonia banned bullfighting, a move reversed in 2016 by the Spanish constitutional court.
If there were no other reasons for Catalonia to break from Spain, the litany of horrific cruelties enshrined in Spanish culture would be sufficient cause, in my view, for declaring independence. JOHN FITZGERALD, Callan, Co. Kilkenny.
Great outdoors
MY two-year-old grandson Sebastian lives in China where urban pollution, due to inner-city living, and the lack of a garden or playground limit his opportunities to play outside.
When he visited me recently, his joy at being outdoors was a delight to behold. We collected conkers and acorns, dredged for pondweed, examined worm casts and molehills and made mud pies.
He enjoyed sitting quietly and watching jackdaws and red kites overhead. We didn’t need costly electronic amusements.
There is much merit in a slower pace of life for children in their early years.
HAZEL VANBERGEN, Old Basing, Hampshire.