Updated 12.25pm
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Everyone’s talking about…
“NO SINGLE EVENT led to this crisis, it was the cumulative effect of a series of decisions over an extended period of time.”
That quote from banking inquiry chairman Ciarán Lynch at yesterday’s press conference sums up much of what the report said, and perhaps what we already knew.
Of course, one of those things we knew was how the ECB made it clear to Ireland that burning bondholders was not an option.
The banking inquiry reports that the ECB made the specific threat of removing Emergency Liquidity Assistance for Irish banks in 2010 should the government attempt to burn bondholders.
Questions are now being asked about whether the government was up-front about how Ireland was treated by the ECB.
Today’s RTÉ Morning Ireland played a recording of a debate from November 2011 in which Finance Minister Michael Noonan denied that the ECB had threatened Ireland
“On the basis of no threats, no, they don’t operate that way,” the minister said. “Jean-Claude Trichet is a perfect gentleman.”
There was never any statement that the bank wouldn’t continue to support us and they have been very helpful to us elsewhere.
Noonan subsequently clarified during the inquiry that threats were made.
Speaking on the same programme, Fianna Fáil’s finance spokesperson Michael McGrath stopped short of saying that Noonan misled the Dáil but said that he should correct the Dáil record.
He didn’t tell the full story in that Dáil exchange, he shouldn’t have waited four and a half years after March 2011 to tell the Irish public the nature of the exchange with the ECB.
This morning, Secretary General of the Department of Communications Mark Griffin faced questions on the adoption of the Eircode system.
He confirmed that ambulances will be starting to use the codes but acknowledged that he didn’t know how much it was cost the National Ambulance Service to update their systems.
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The agenda
What the others are saying
In case you missed it
https://vine.co/v/iiEavEDJlmY
Good day for…
Ciarán Lynch. Okay, so it may have been tortuous but you’d imagine the banking inquiry chairman has a weight off his shoulders today.
Bad day for…
Michael Lowry. After losing his High Court case, the independent TD could be facing millions more in legal fees.
On the Twitter machine…
The good, the bad and the ugly.
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