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

I thank both contributors, who have described very accurately what we are facing and the folly of the line the Eurogroup has taken in dealing with the Greek crisis. Although Mr. McCarthy said we were different from the politicians, he suggested that for political reasons we must be careful about the use of strong language on either side and that loose language had been used. I suggest it is time for blunt language. Mr. Varoufakis said that when he made economic arguments, of the sort Mr. McCarthy has just put, in a measured way to the Eurogroup, he might as well have been singing the Swedish national anthem, and just got blank stares. They were not interested in the measured, objective economic arguments such as Mr. McCarthy has just reproduced, almost word for word, from the interview with Mr. Varoufakis published in the New Statesman. Almost any economist, left or right, looking at this is saying the same, that the judgments and policies made by the Eurogroup, headed by Mr. Schäuble, had nothing to do with sound economic management and was purely about politics. If it is not about sound economic judgment, we must ask what is it and what is motivating it. I would be interested in hearing Mr. McCarthy's opinion. We must be honest. If it is not about sound economic judgment, which it clearly is not, and it is about shoving something unsustainable from every point of view down the throats of the Greeks, we must speculate about the real motive. It is not about hyperbole. We must be honest. Greece was subjected to economic terrorism and political bullying for purely political reasons and our Government went along with it for purely political reasons. Mr. Varoufakis said the Irish, Spanish and Portuguese Governments were, to his surprise and disappointment, among the most energetic enemies of the Greeks during the negotiations because they were afraid of the political embarrassment that would result if they sided with the Greek Government in saying there had to be debt write-down and a lifting of the austerity. Was he not right?