Professor Patrick Honohan:

It was obviously in trouble at that stage because a couple of its banks were in major difficulties. Given Ireland's triple A rating, would one trust a commercial bank which was receiving considerable negative press or the Government of Ireland's guarantee? The bank regarded this as destabilising and a cause of additional outflows from the banks it was trying to nurse through ELA. It did not tell anybody that at the time but it provided ELA a few days later. That is why I refer to being put on the back foot by irritating one's neighbours. It certainly worked against the Government's negotiating position and bridges had to be rebuilt subsequently.