‘No legal fears over Lenihan letter’

Finance Minister Michael Noonan has said he is not aware of any legal concerns expressed by the ECB regarding the disclosure of a letter sent by the bank to the late Brian Lenihan in the run-up to the 2010 bailout.

The ECB has to date refused to release the contents of the November 2010 letter from Jean Claude Trichet to the then finance minister in response to Freedom of Information requests.

Mr Noonan, in a written Dáil response to Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty stated that “in early 2014, when the ECB initially sought my views in the context of its discussion on the possible release of the letter, I indicated that the decision to release the letter was a matter for the ECB”.