Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 16 June 2015

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform

Forthcoming ECOFIN Council: Minister for Finance

6:00 pm

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

No, I would rather reply separately, because Deputy Boyd Barrett has made a whole series of unsubstantiated charges again. There is great solidarity between the member states of Europe, all 27 of them, and the Greek Government and the Greek people. That solidarity has been proven in two separate programmes where European taxpayers contributed €350 million to Greece, which would have gone down long ago if it had not been for the solidarity shown by European taxpayers. The goodwill is there and it has been proved. They are involved in real negotiations again because everyone knows the Greek situation has to be alleviated and they are prepared to do a deal on that. However, I cannot envisage a world where, if one pays money, one does not pay it back and still gets more money. Even if the present Greek situation were resolved, they need a contract or a third programme, and who is going to give it to them if they refuse point blank to make any effort to repay the €350 million they already owe?

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