Professor Alan Ahearne:

Yes, I mean, it was ... particularly the ECB’s approach was quite strident so there would not have been a programme. And, indeed, I mean, the ECB could have done many other things if Ireland had decided to burn senior bondholders of a bank. They could have said, “This bank is now insolvent, you’re burning the bonds therefore we’re not going to lend to it anymore.” So they could have said the collateral ... this bank is no longer eligible for euro system financing, in which case all the financing would had to have fallen on the State. So there was ... at ... if the troika were against it and the ECB were against it there was no option.

It’s also the case, at least we’re focusing on the Anglo, the amount of money involved was about €4 billion, from €3.5 billion or €4 billion. Brian Lenihan had in his mind 50% discount so you might say €1.5 billion to €2 billion. It’s a lot of money but you’ve got to balance that against the consequences. The ECB and the European Commission had their arguments and they put them out and there was a recent European Commission paper looking at, assessing the programme – I have it here – and they list eight or nine reasons why they believe at the time Ireland should not have burned the bondholders, and they still think Ireland shouldn’t. They said it was in Ireland’s best interest not to. So they’re making those arguments but the Irish side had a different perspective on it.