Updated 12.20
The President of the European Central Bank (ECB) has insisted Ireland's financial crisis was "home-made" - and was made worse by the government's response.
Mario Draghi says the ECB was the fire brigade in Ireland's crisis and should not carry the blame for the fire damage.
Mr Draghi has taken questions from Irish MEPs at the European Parliament in Brussels, with the answers to be fed back to the Banking Inquiry here.
He told the MEPs that the government's bank guarantee made the crisis worse.
"Let me make this point again. We should not forget that the banking crisis was entirely home-made."
"Second point. The immediate reaction to the banking crisis was the issuance of a government guarantee that had the immediate effect of making evident, explicit the nexus between the banking system and the sovereign."
"This was one of the factors that in fact led to the loss of market access of the Irish government, and ultimately to the need for a financial assistance programme."
He also said the crash would have been more painful without the involvement of the Troika.
He says without emergency aid from the ECB, austerity in Ireland would have been far more severe.
Background
Mr Draghi previously refused to appear before the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry, because the European financial institution is not answerable to a national parliament.
One MEP who will put a question to Mr Draghi, Marian Harkin, says it took 12 months to organise this brief interaction.
The representative said they made an approach to Mr Draghi after it became clear that the appearance of the former ECB president, Jean-Claude Trichet, before the Banking Inquiry in Dublin was the only opportunity Irish authorities would have to question key European figures.
