John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have been in Berlin with some colleagues meeting members of the German Parliament and Government. Does the ambassador think there should be a write-down or cancellation of the Greek debt, or, as some of us would prefer, that the debt should be parked to give Greece some time to organise its economy? Most of us believe that the Greek economy is a failed entity and has been failing for many years. There is a question as to whether it should have been allowed into the eurozone in the first place because it had a failed banking system and economy and an inability to collect tax. If a government cannot collect tax in an economy, it is bound to fail, and that is exactly what happened in Greece. There is a view that, having had a military dictatorship for many years and come through periods of intense and absolute corruption, which the German and French governments have acknowledged, it is a bit unfair to come down heavily on the current government on the basis that it has been in power only since January and needs some time to stabilise its finances and economy.

I have been to Greece on many occasions and have met Syriza and other parties there. The view there is that the people have taken this out of politics. Many have said to me there is nothing worse that can be done to them. There are 300,000 houses without electricity, there is 60% youth unemployment and 30% unemployment overall. A friend of mine, who happens to be a Jesuit in London, has just returned from Greece where he spent three years. He tells me that people here do not realise that some areas outside Athens are as near as one can get to Third World status. He met a businessman – this is very relevant – who had 1,700 employees but lost his business and everything. My friend was in this man’s house. He had no electricity and very little food for his family. He asked what more Europe could do to him, how could it get any worse for him. I felt, based on the people I had met in Greece, that there would be an overwhelming "No" vote, whether or not it was right to vote that way. As an outsider, does the ambassador believe that the Greeks need compassion?

Economists all over the world, including American and German economists, whom we have met, have said the Greeks cannot pay this debt. They cannot pay €360 billion or €380 billion. They do not have it. For the past six or seven years, the EU has been asking Greece to increase tax and reduce spending, which will make the economy crumble further. What would be the Luxembourg Government’s view of parking the debt?

Migration affects all aspects of the European community. It is a very complex issue. Many of the people migrating into Europe are running away from terrorism and feel they have no choice but to leave the country they are in. They are also fleeing economic misery. It is all very well for us to talk about the number of migrants coming into Europe and how they might overflow across Europe but we do not know how we would feel if we were in the same situation and had to leave our country because of terrorism or an economic collapse. The attitude in Europe appears to be that nobody knows what to do, how many each country should take, if any at all, and how to deal financially with the hundreds of thousands it is estimated will come through Europe over the next few years. There is no question that will happen because there seems to be no end to the instability in Libya. We are faced with huge migration and the question of what to do about it. We cannot simply corral hundreds of thousands of people and leave them. We have to find some system for dealing with them, economically and politically.

The main issue, however, is Greece and whatever happens there over the next couple of days can have far-reaching consequences for all of us in Europe.