Minister Noonan Also Accused of Misleading the Dáil

Social Democrats Co-Leader Stephen Donnelly stated that the findings outlined in today’s Banking Inquiry Report provide the basis for the State to mount a legal review to ascertain if a full legal challenge against the ECB could take place.

Speaking following the publication of the report Donnelly said:

“The report today shows that the ECB explicitly threatened the Irish State on at least two separate occasions - in November 2010 and March 2011. We now know that they threatened that if senior bondholders had losses imposed, the ECB would withdraw emergency liquidity assistance to Irish banks. This could have had a very negative effect on, and possibly collapsed, the Irish banking system.”

“I have also concluded that Minister Noonan misled the Dáíl in November 2011 when I specifically asked him if any threats had been made by the ECB regarding emergency liquidity assistance and the burning of senior bondholders. Minister Noonan stated categorically to me at the time that no threats had been made. He stated that "With regard to threats, the ECB does not operate that way. Jean-Claude Trichet is a perfect gentleman." He further stated that with regard to "the threat of increased interest rates or a turning off of the tap of liquidity to the banking system...neither of these threats was ever made." We now know that the threat was made.

“The Social Democrats believe that the outstanding €25 billion Anglo promissory note debt should be deemed to be odious debt, with the ECB incurring the full cost. We now may have a legal foundation for a challenge to enforce such a position. We are calling for the immediate implementation of a full independent legal review to see if a legal challenge can be undertaken regarding our exposure to the promissory note debt.”