Professor Patrick Honohan:

That is a very important point. The question is whether one trades suffering now for suffering later. It is not just a question of coming down on the lowest paid but rather it is a question of when. Is it better early rather than later? Can we get away with any less? The answer is we cannot. It is not just because of the troika. If it had not been the troika, it would have been the markets. In fact, it was the markets; the markets told us it was a case of no more, that we could not borrow any more. We said we needed to borrow because the Government has expenditure needs. Basically, the troika said that the market would not allow us to borrow, that it would loan us a bit more but we would need to get expenditure under control. The troika members are our friends in this respect, even though I have fights with them over details.