Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I was surprised to hear reference to a crisis in leadership on the Greek side. To my mind, given what we have been told, namely, that the Greek debt is unsustainable and the people in Greece cannot take any more, the Greek side has made too many concessions. The people cannot take any more but Europe is insisting that they do. It seems to me, in so far as the Greek Government believes this debt is unsustainable and the ordinary people cannot take any more - I hope they stick to this line - that Greece is right and what we are seeing is political vindictiveness on the part of German Chancellor Merkel, the neo-liberal ideologues, big business and anybody else who stands to lose if we challenge the austerity agenda. Is it not just politics at this point in terms of the opportunity being taken to punish these people to set an example for everybody else across Europe?