“There is a very good management team in place in Permanent TSB Bank”  Finance Minister, Michael Noonan intoned only last week at the publication of the National Treasury Management Agency’s Annual Report, though he went on to add that the bank had not yet recovered sufficiently for the State to sell an additional tranche of its current 75 percent shareholding.

What a difference a week makes – and not just in politics.  

The Chief Executive of Permanent TSB Bank (PTSB) Jeremy Masding and his team have undoubtedly done the State and the economy some service since they took over three years ago by stripping the bank of non-performing assets, slowly rebuilding its mortgage and retail franchise and guiding it to a successful stock market flotation in the Spring, from which the State recovered about €0.5 billion of its bail-out investment.

"The bank's decisions hugely increased the trauma suffered by the mortgage holders by dragging them through the courts and delaying closure and fair compensation."

It’s also true, as Mr Masding repeatedly reminded us during his serious, controlled and stern-faced press conference on Tuesday, that the controversial failure to inform close to 1400 mortgage holders of the full impact of their decision to switch from tracker mortgage rates, took place prior to his watch.

But the High Court challenge to the Financial Ombudsman’s decision in support of the mortgage holders’ case, was taken on his watch, as was the subsequent preliminary move to appeal the negative High Court outcome – from the bank’s perspective – to the Supreme Court.

These decisions not only added to the bank’s owns legal and management costs in this sorry saga, but far more importantly, hugely increased the trauma suffered by the mortgage holders by dragging them through the courts and delaying closure and fair compensation.

We now know that a number of mortgage holders actually lost their homes – one of a citizen’s most basic human needs – due not only to the original mis-communication by the bank but by its subsequent challenge to the adjudication of the Ombudsman and the courts.

On Tuesday, Mr Masding, who repeatedly reminds us that he has brought the key value of transparency to how he and the bank now conduct their business, informed us that PTSB had pursued litigation to the steps of the Supreme Court based on legal advice and in pursuit of a number of broad principles.

But when asked the source of the legal advice and for some insight as to the principles involved, he patronisingly closed down the line of enquiry with a glib, “I’m not prepared to discuss the reason for historical decisions” line.

That's not acceptable - and certainly not transparent. The whole point of the press conference was to discuss the reason historical decisions were taken, the severe impact they had on customers, and the mitigating factors, if any, the bank might have for pursuing its court action.

Crucially, neither Mr Masding nor any of his colleagues, have given any credible evidence they would be manifesting the regret now being displayed but for the forceful intervention of the Central Bank to cause them to review their position.

This is not a call for “heads to roll” - but it is a call for Jeremy Masding and the current management team in PTSB to display more real transparency and humility about their involvement in the affair and for the board of the company and the Minister as majority shareholder, to take them to task robustly in that regard.

After all, both the board and the shareholder were fully informed about the decisions, and the underlying reasons for them, that the current management took. In the UK, where the PTSB’s current chairman, Alan Cook is from, there is a tradition of appropriate accountability for executive actions.