Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this debate and to show solidarity with our European partners and the people of Greece.

It is ironic, and worth noting by the members of the Fine Gael Party who are here - since there is nobody else in the House - that although there has been much criticism of the German parliamentary committees' discussions of matters to do with Ireland, we now have the opportunity to discuss matters concerning Greece. It must be acknowledged that countries in a Union are linked in terms of their operation and functioning. It is a credit to the Minister, Deputy Noonan, that this morning the Opposition started to suggest that the once impossible prospect of any renegotiation of interest rates or rescheduling of loans will now not be good enough. One Independent Deputy, who is one of the most negative and pessimistic individuals in the country, said that even a full and total write-off of our banking debt would still not be adequate. This serves to show exactly how negative our Opposition has become. I wish the Minister continued success in that regard.

That Greece is in a worse position than Ireland is not something that should give us any satisfaction, but it is important to emphasise that the nature of our debt is very specific and is different not only from that of Greece but also from those of other European countries. Our debt was caused by a property bubble, bank failure and a failure of Government oversight in the past number of years. Our other key economic indicators are continuing to improve slowly but steadily, which goes against four or five years of steady disimprovement. Today we have seen small increases in the number of people in employment; our economy grew last year and it is believed it will continue to grow this year. Perhaps most importantly, our competitiveness has significantly improved in recent years. Those measures combined will show that Ireland has a strong future.

There has been discussion of a second bailout, and today I heard members of the Opposition talking about a third bailout for Greece. There is no doubt such talk, particularly in Ireland's case, is extremely unhelpful. Based on most of the economic predictions, it seems we will not require a second bailout; nor should we wish to see a third one in Greece.

There has been some pretty unfair commentary about democracy in Greece. The leadership of Greece has been established as the democratically elected Parliament. While few could argue that it is ideal, it is wrong to suggest that somehow the people of Greece, and the people of Italy, have lost their democratic leadership.

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