Watch live: Banking inquiry questions to Jean-Claude Trichet at lecture
TDs will attend a lecture in Dublin today to ask questions of the former ECB President, after he refused to attend the Oireachtas banking inquiry.
This afternoon, Jean-Claude Trichet, who was the ECB chief during the Irish bailout in 2010, is in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham to give a lecture on the governance of the Eurozone.
• Trichet pays tribute to the late Brian Lenihan, and their 'close' relationship.
• He said the Irish bank guarantee was introduced without ECB 'coordination' - but the Irish government was right to 'make this difficult decision'.
• On burning senior bondholders, he said the risk outweighed the possible benefits - and the ECB only gave advice, not instruction.
• "What we had to … proved to be a full success, thanks to you," Trichet tells the audience. "But you had the full support of the ECB."
• Ireland is not immune to boom-bust cycles, and it would be foolish to assume we now are.
Initially Jean-Claude Trichet said he was not going to engage with the banking inquiry, saying the ECB does not answer to national parliaments, and only takes questions from MEPs.
However, a compromise was reached where Trichet will take questions, on the record - but not in a formal inquiry setting in Leinster House.
The 11 members of the Banking Inquiry will be at the lecture as part of the audience.
They will be permitted to include his answers in the inquiry findings, and are likely to ask him about the letters which eventually compelled then-Finance-Minister Brian Lenihan to apply for the bailout in 2010.
However, Trichet already knows the questions he will be asked.
