Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

Is it not the case that the Government has been travelling in the Greek chariot in that the interest reductions it obtained were due to what the Greeks did? The Government came in at the end, so to speak. The Minister for Finance is going out to Europe week after week but is achieving nothing with this nicely nicely approach to Chancellor Merkel and Mr. Sarkozy. Is the Minister of State saying definitively that he will not achieve anything in the short term? In other words, are we being told that this payment will be made even though it will crucify our country in 2014, with €2 billion worth of interest payments leading inevitably to reductions in essential social spending?

In regard to the technical discussion raised by colleagues on this side of the House, is one of the issues under discussion the mark-to-market interest rate which the Fianna Fáil Party disgracefully and in a treasonable way attached to the promissory note in 2010? Will the Government attempt to roll that back based on a maturity date, as we have been advised to do at the finance committee? The Minister of State claims we can neither cancel nor defer the promissory notes. That is not the case. We could, for example, consider kicking the issue into the stands for 30 or 40 years. We have options. What we do not have is a Government that will negotiate on our behalf in an aggressive and determined manner. Despite the strife and suffering in Greece, its Government may be achieving more than our own has done thus far.

See this speech in context