The head of the IMF has admitted that the IMF and other bodies regularly broke the rules when trying to figure out how to react to Ireland's financial collapse.

Christine Lagarde said today that Ireland's crisis came so early that nobody knew quite how to respond:

“There has clearly been a learning curve,” she said.

“We invented as we went through the process and we did reasonably well. All of us were transgressing rules and inventing the rules of the game.”

Ms Lagarde was in Dublin today to discuss the lessons learned from Ireland’s recovery and she told the audience at Dublin Castle that “good beers” and strong chemistry between the parties involved played a role in getting Ireland through the bailout successfully.

“Certainly in the case of Ireland and thanks to not just good beers in the pub after meetings but also the chemistry between the Irish authorities, the civil service who were operating and members of the Troika, the chemistry actually worked and produced trust,” she said.

Senior ECB Advisor, Benoit Coeure echoed Lagarde's comments about Ireland's bailout being unchartered ground in many ways as he admitted that the bank was ill-prepared for the task involved in helping Ireland.

“Before Ireland we started this crisis without having the proper rules of the game and without having the proper instruments to support the rules of the game,” he said.