Ireland got same ECB message as eurozone

The ECB’s message to the Government at the height of the economic crisis was the same as that sent to other eurozone countries including Germany and France, according to Jean-Claude Trichet, the bank’s former president.

Speaking at the European Parliament’s economics committee yesterday, Trichet said eurozone members were ready to hang Ireland and other troubled economies out to dry and leave it to the IMF to come up with a bailout and conditions for a rescue at the start of the crisis.

He claimed Ireland was “probably right” in being the first country in the world to give a blanket guarantee to bank investors.