Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is a lot of anger in Greece in respect of what the Greek people are being put through and much blame is being placed on Frankfurt in particular. As for the talks themselves, the Minister, Deputy Noonan, has stated there is a lack of detail on the Greek side and I am told the Eurogroup meeting was fairly short. The Minister, Deputy Noonan, is quoted as saying that future negotiations on reforms will be based out of the office of the Greek Deputy Prime Minister, which again suggests the Finance Minister of Greece now is being shunted aside. However, I have read material online in which he has stated this was not the case. He was blaming this on bad journalism but it also appears to be following a narrative coming out of Ireland to the effect that there is no detail and nothing substantial is coming from the Greeks. We appear to be the only ones coming out with that line, certainly in public, and I am interested in finding out what precisely is happening in this regard.

I refer to the statement by Jean-Claude Juncker that our future as Europeans will one day involve a European army. Further statements in this regard have been made, such as when the head of NATO talked about looking forward to the day Ireland joins NATO and so on. Will the Irish Government be saying anything in respect of Mr. Juncker's wishes? Will Ireland raise its opposition to joining any European Union army in particular during this discussion on Russia? Again, I am coming from the angle that I wish to see greater demilitarisation, not militarisation and this pushes people further into corners. I apologise to the Chairman for going on.