The long awaited letter sent by the then ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet to former Finance Minister, Brian Lenihan has finally been published, but few will be surprised by its content. The secret document clarifies that the Government was put in a position where Europe threatened to pull emergency funding if Ireland did not apply for an immediate bailout.

It is an interesting document, and a historical record of the pressure that Europe put on the Government, but it is not a smoking gun. The real damage had already been done to the Irish economy long before the letter was sent.

In the document, originally published by The Irish Times, Trichet lists four provisions that Ireland must meet if it is going to be issued more emergency funding, the first two are the most important:

“1) The Irish government shall send a request for financial support to the Eurogroup; 2) The request shall include the commitment to undertake decisive actions in the areas of fiscal consolidation, structural reforms and financial sector restructuring, in agreement with the European Commission, the International Monetary Fund and the ECB.”

The other two provisions relate to the restructuring of the country's banking system and guarantees that the Irish government will fully repay the emergency aid that it had already received from Europe.

The most pointed passage of the letter is regarding the need for urgent action on the part of the Government, Trichet writes: "I am sure that you are aware that a swift response is needed before markets open next week, as evidenced by recent market tensions which may further escalate, possibly in a disruptive way, if no concrete action is taken by the Irish government on the points I mention above."

Mr Lenihan did heed the warning - Ireland applied for a €85 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund and the European Union two days later.

Only ten days before the writing of this letter Mr Lenihan appeared on BBC's Newsnight and received a grilling from Jeremy Paxman. Under tough questioning he stuck to the party line, stating that Ireland would be able to cover its debts. He told Mr Paxman that "the cost of bailing out the banks on an annualised basis for the next ten years is about a billion a year or a billion and a half a year" and that it can be repaid without a bailout.

When pushed to clarify if he was unequivocally saying that he could guarantee that there will not be a bailout he responded: "No state can give a 100 percent guarantee of anything in the modern world."

The letter was sent over a month and a half after the banking guarantee that Brian Lenihan introduced on September 30th 2010. It was also drafted the day after the Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan had already appeared on national radio and made it clear that Ireland would need to apply for additional financial support.

Economists say that we make our recessions in the good times, not the bad times. Rather than looking for secret letters from Europe we should pay more attention to the behaviour, and the failings that led to the original crises. By the time the letter came the Irish economy was only being kept afloat by a drip-feed of European aid and the bailout was all but inevitable.