Michael Noonan has denied being threatened by the head of the European Central Bank (ECB) — but claims his predecessor Brian Lenihan was.

Despite a slowing Chinese economy, decelerating inflation, and a stronger euro, ECB president Mario Draghi has said he will do more to support eurozone growth only “if necessary”. 

Why was Finance Minister Michael Noonan’s evidence to the banking enquiry not given prior to Jean-Claude Trichet’s visit? It confirms the belief that Ireland was coerced by the ECB into breaking one of capitalism’s basic laws: bankruptcy.

The IMF’s chief bailout official has accused the ECB of blocking an €8bn Irish plan to burn bondholders, putting its interests ahead of the country’s, and ultimately worsening the economic crash by forcing Ireland to “stand behind” the banks.

The declaration by David Drumm, former chief executive of Anglo Irish Bank that he would deliberate to the banking inquiry by video link is an outrageous display of condescension and disrespect toward the Irish public and a mischievous instance of self-serving manipulation.

Q: Why are there concerns that the Oireachtas banking inquiry could collapse or is descending into chaos?

The Government did not know what it was doing when it tried to shore up the banks in 2008, as it thought the banks just needed money when in fact they were broke, a study by the European Commission says.

That Greece has been undergoing a slow-motion tragedy, now accelerating, is undoubted by (almost) all commentators. 

Brian Cowen said he never breached the public’s trust when he was taoiseach, as he outlined to the banking inquiry how Ireland was pressurised into entering a bailout programme.

Former taoiseach Brian Cowen gave his version of the September 2008 bank guarantee and November 2010 bailout crises. This is an abridged version:

Former taoiseach Brian Cowen is expected this week to back previous suggestions that Ireland was “bounced” into a bailout.

Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan made his infamous RTÉ call confirming a bailout to quell “alarm”, despite claims it was to “undermine” the Government’s position and help a de facto ECB “financial coup d-état”.

Mario Draghi can’t afford to play by the same crisis rules as the European Central Bank did in the past.

Where was Johnny Logan when his country needed him most, asks Michael Clifford.

Then taoiseach Brian Cowen set up a “secret” group to examine a possible bank guarantee months before it happened — and as bankers and billionaires were actively lobbying for the move.

TWO sobering but illustrative events played out simultaneously yesterday. Each showed how powerless democratically elected, supposedly sovereign, governments can be in the face of unflinching international creditors or too-big-to-fail banks tottering towards collapse asking — demanding if you prefer — that they be rescued with public funds.

IRELAND’S member of the European Court of Auditors Kevin Cardiff was in charge of the Department of Finance unit that had oversight of banks on that fateful, generation-defining and expensive night — September 29th/30th 2008, “guarantee night” as it has become known.

European Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly is taking on the powerful ECB, asking why market-moving information was revealed to a select group of people including bankers and hedge fund managers in London.

The former governor of the Central Bank says the ECB warned Ireland not to allow Anglo Irish Bank to collapse like Lehman Brothers.

 

The departure of Patrick Honohan from the Central Bank caps a week where the Irish public saw the true reality of central bank independence.

Trichet already knows the questions he will be asked.

The mystery over why Anglo and Irish Nationwide were included in the blanket bank guarantee deepened after another senior banker said yesterday that he advised the Government not to include the stricken firms in the deal.

Government debt in the eurozone has surged to the highest levels since the introduction of the single currency, underscoring the challenges still confronting the 19-nation bloc as it wrestles with Greece over new aid payments.

The Oireachtas banking inquiry may be blocked from questioning Anglo Irish Bank’s auditor during the Celtic Tiger boom because of Seán FitzPatrick’s imminent trial.

I believe the European Central Bank (ECB) has questions to answer and I don’t believe the banking inquiry knows which questions to ask even if Jean-Claude Trichet presented himself in front of it.

Senior European Central Bank officials, including ex-ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet, are set to meet with the banking inquiry in a “neutral” Dublin location this spring to discuss their role in Ireland’s economic crash.

Banking inquiry chairman Ciarán Lynch will today meet Patrick Honohan, the governor of the Central Bank, for talks about how the European Central Bank’s role in the economic crisis can be investigated.

The banking inquiry has been dealt another blow after another two key international bodies involved in assessing Ireland’s economy refused to turn up for public hearings.

So the ECB has finally made its move. Mario Draghi has “done what it takes”, writes By Kyran FitzGerald. 

The former head of the ECB has indicated he will co-operate with the banking inquiry but stopped short of committing to attend the probe’s hearings in Leinster House.

The Oireachtas banking inquiry officially begins its public hearings this morning - after the news overnight that no member of the European Central Bank will appear before it.

The Oireachtas Banking Inquiry has been dealt a huge blow - the night before it's due to begin public hearings.

The European Central Bank is not “overly concerned about the Irish situation” and its members have little or no interest in participating in the banking inquiry despite repeated requests for them to do so.

It’s little wonder that the Government has not pressed harder against the ECB’s approach to the banking crisis. Both seem unable to accept that a mistake, once made, should be acknowledged, and that this does not have to represent a humiliating climbdown but rather evidence of a learning organisation.

I am somewhat surprised that there is any surprise at the content of the letter that the then president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, sent to Brian Lenihan on November 19, 2010.

The ECB has given a cool response to suggestions its officials should appear before the Oireachtas banking inquiry, whose members believe fresh questions have been raised with the release of correspondence from the height of the eurozone crisis.

Letters tell us more about the bailout story, writes Europe Correspondent Ann Cahill

Fianna Fáil has admitted it should not have allowed itself to be "threatened" by the ECB in the run up to the €67.5bn EU/IMF bailout in November 2010.

The publication yesterday of the utterly unambiguous November 2010 letter from the then ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet to then Minister for Finance, the late Brian Lenihan, shows how power is used and how real and pressing vulnerability — a country facing economic collapse and the chaos that would ensue could only be described in those terms — turns national politicians into supplicants rather than negotiators.