Mr. Jean-Claude Trichet:

This is, of course, very, very important. I would say that Irish banks, as others in the euro area, encountered liquidity and funding challenges from mid-2007. This was the subprime crisis and, for the ECB, it was 9 August 2007 that we had to embark on the first non-standard measures that we took in the crisis, which was 9 August 2007, to give liquidity to all banks in the euro area, without any limit, provided, of course, they had collateral. And that was an Irish issue, clearly a very, very important Irish issue, but it was an issue at the level of the euro area as a whole and we adapted again our market interventions to this potential illiquidity over a period. Fortunately, we could regain control of the money market after 9 August, but at the end of the year, we had again enormous problems, we embark again on an unlimited ... a limited supply of liquidity. But when we deal, as central banks, with liquidity issue, we have to stress that solvency issues were at the time not our problem but the problem of the Irish Financial Regulator and we have to rely upon, because there was no centralisation of supervision, we had to rely upon the judgment made by the national authority at that time and there was absolutely no suggestion that I could mention from the regulator that Irish banks were insolvent at the time. So, we enhanced our own survey of what was happening in Ireland in 2009, after Lehman Brothers collapsed, in light of concerns not just on the banking system but also on the fiscal situation and I would say that we had special attention, without being responsible, because again don't forget that the ECB is responsible for price stability without deflation, without inflation, for the euro area as a whole, but what we understood from the situation in '09 and '10 was that the funding challenges facing Irish banks was particularly acute and that providing assistance, in assisting the banks - and we responded to the crisis at the time - there was an immense call - I have mentioned that already - for refinancing coming from the banks in Ireland. And it became clearer and clearer over time that the funding concerns were, you know, due to deeper, more fundamental issues that were underlying. All taken into account, we, as I said, refinanced the Irish economy in a proportion which has been absolutely without any precedent or equivalent.