Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There have been problems in a number of European countries. The programme was designed for Ireland and Ireland implemented it, including the vast bulk of the structural reforms in it. Portugal implemented the structural reforms in its programme; Spain implemented the structural reforms in its programme and Cyprus is implementing the structural reforms in its programme. Greece, however, did not implement the structural reforms in its programme and, as a result, its economy is not growing fast enough to get out of difficulty. It is fashionable to load all of the blame on the countries that were supplying money and credit to Greece, but there is a problem with the way the programme was implemented in Greece.