Professor Patrick Honohan:

There are a few things that really are important to the ECB, one of which is its independence and another is that it has to be accountable. Who is the ECB accountable to? It is accountable to the European Parliament. It does not want to put itself in the position of appearing to be accountable to national parliaments as opposed to the European Parliament. That is the constraint it feels. It is a sort of legal thing. You may think it is a bit precious or something but the ECB feels this very strongly. It is not in any way resistant to sharing its views in a way that would be readily accessible to the committee. I have been talking to several of the people involved and I think there may be some possibilities to communicate the information and an understanding of the ECB's position in some way, as distinct from my own attempts to communicate them, which I will do.