Three Irish MEPs given five minutes each to question Mario Draghi over Ireland's bailout
Irish MEPs will this morning be allowed 15 minutes to question the President of the ECB, Mario Draghi, about the Irish banking crisis.
Mr Draghi will be in the European Parliament in Brussels this morning, where Fine Gael MEP for Dublin Brian Hayes, Independent MEP for Midlands North West Marian Harkin and Sinn Féin MEP for Midlands North West Matt Carthy will be given five minutes each to question him on the ECB's actions surrounding Ireland's bailout programme.
Mr Draghi's responses this morning will be reported back to the Banking Inquiry.
The ECB president previously refused to appear before the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry, as the European financial institution was not answerable to a national parliament.
Marian Harkin says it took 12 months to organise this brief interaction with the ECB President.
She said: "When we finally understood that, other than Jean Claud Trichet's event in Dublin, which in my view was of little value, when we understood that, we went back to Draghi and said 'we want you as president of ECB to be anwerable to us as MEPS'.
"And that's what's happening. It's a lot less than what we might have hoped for, but in the context of the parliament, that's the best we could get."
