LIKE IT or not, our main banks look set to be recapitalised by the Government. That could be a hit of €3-€15 billion for the taxpayer, depending on the scheme details.

This follows the generous deposit and savings guarantee that was introduced recently to prevent at least one of the quoted banks from falling off the cliff.

Competition law could yet be set aside to allow our banks and building societies to merge their operations, with obvious implications for consumers. Yet not one banker - or member of our financial regulatory system - has been removed from their post. Anglo Irish Bank chairman Seán Fitzpatrick couldn't even bring himself to say sorry to taxpayers in his confessional with Marian Finucane on RTÉ Radio 1.

More than €50 billion has been wiped from the combined stock market value of our listed banks since the Iseq peaked about 20 months ago, devastating pension funds across the State.

Small firms are being starved of credit, while consumers are being denied mortgages and hit with extra fees and penalties for not paying their credit card bills on time or exceeding their overdraft facilities.

Yet nobody has taken the rap for this. It's one thing bailing out banks at the taxpayers' expense, but it's quite another to expect us to wear the prospect of those executives who got us into the mess staying in their highly paid posts. Other governments made it a condition of recapitalisation that heads rolled. Surely it's time for ours to do the same.