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The European Central Bank turned a blind eye to "irresponsible lending" by German, French, British and Belgian banks, the European Union's former ambassador to the United States, John Bruton has said. In a damning speech at the London School of Economics on Monday (7 March) evening, Mr Bruton, also a former Irish prime minister of the same conservative political stripe as the current leader-elect, Enda Kenny, has accused Frankfurt of failing to use its powers to rein in speculative bubbles in countries such as Ireland and Spain.

"From 2000 on, British, German, Belgian, French banks, and banks of other EU countries lent irresponsibly to the Irish banks in the hope that they too could profit from the then obtaining Irish construction bubble," he said. "They were supervised by their home central banks, and by the ECB ... who seemingly raised no objection to this lending."

The Bulgarian deputy prime minister, who is also the country's finance minister, appears to have let the cat out of the bag on the date of an Irish bailout, telling Bulgarian reporters on Wednesday (17 November) that despite Irish insistence to the contrary, he expects a package will be cobbled together some time next week. Print Comment article "I expect a bailout decision to be taken within a week," Simeon Djankov said at a small briefing following a meeting of EU finance ministers, after reporters asked about the European Commission, European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund's upcoming mission to Dublin.

Meanwhile, details on the composition of the EU-IMF troika team, who in effect, through their mission to oversee Irish austerity and budget plans will maintain a degree of authority over the elected government of Ireland, are being kept secret. The European Commission, the IMF and the ECB will not release the names or backgrounds of those involved or even the number of officials in the team other than to say, according to EU economy spokesman Amadeu Tardio: "There will be more than two but fewer than 10 people going."