Aideen Hayden (Labour) | Oireachtas source

As Professor Barry pointed out, Greece has a closed economy whereas the Irish economy is an open one, with 40% of exports going to a country, the United Kingdom, which is doing especially well. We are in a different position entirely from Greece.

I ask the witnesses to respond to my question on the moves that have been made towards banking union. Last year, only seven - the figure may be even lower at this point - of 129 European banks failed stress tests and we established a bank resolution mechanism which will be backfilled with funds to protect the banking system. I am personally committed to Europe and ensuring Greece continues to be a full member of the European Union and euro. Do the witnesses not agree, however, that the markets have factored in a Greek exit from the eurozone? The markets fell by approximately 2% at the start of the first day of the recent crisis and finished the same day even less than 2% down. Have we simply moved on and have the markets factored in the difficulty of Greece? Is it not the case that a Greek exit from the euro would not be the catastrophe Mr. McCarthy believes it would be?