ECB to blame for Irish austerity, says UK Labour adviser
Simon Wren-Lewis says bank should have ‘done its job’ earlier to act effectively as a lender of last resort
Outgoing Central Bank governor Patrick Honohan: there was a very real threat to Ireland of bond investors refusing to buy Irish debt
Simon Wren-Lewis, an Oxford professor and economic advis
er to the British Labour Party, told Dublin economists last night that the European Central Bank (ECB) was to blame for the level of austerity in Ireland during the financial crisis.