Ireland's financial crisis would have been much more painful without the Troika's involvement.

That's according to the President of the European Central Bank, who says Ireland shouldn't blame the fire brigade for the damage caused by the fire.

Mario Draghi says without emergency aid from the ECB, austerity in Ireland would have been fair more severe:

Mr Draghi's answers to questions at today's meeting of the European Parliament economic affairs committee will be fed back into the Oireachtas Banking Inquiry which is preparing its final report.

But MEPs meeting Mario Draghi today have complained about how little time they had to question him about Ireland's bailout.

Our political correspondent Gavan Reilly filed this report for Today FM's National Lunchtime News: