Professor Patrick Honohan:

I think that Jean-Claude Trichet, and the other members of the governing council, could not understand why Ireland had not already applied for it's own sake. And yes, they wanted it for the stability of Europe as well, but they couldn't understand why Ireland wasn't doing it for it's own sake. In fact, Ireland was doing it but, you know, it just hadn't taken the formal application step. So I don't think it was ECB versus Ireland; it was ECB saying, "Come on, Ireland, come on, you know you have to do this." It's a bit different.