Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)

This Euro Area Loan Facility (Amendment) Bill has led to an interesting debate in this House. As it is related to Europe, unlike most other Bills no amendments can be tabled. There is no debate about the detail of the Bill and it is not being dealt with section by section to ascertain what can or should be changed or what is required. The Government has portrayed this Bill as being required simply as a measure of support for the Greek people and as a measure to reinforce Ireland's solidarity with them. This is because there are no financial implications for Ireland in respect of this legislation because like the Greeks, we are in a bailout programme and therefore will not be required to contribute to this loan facility for them as envisaged under this legislation. The debate on this Bill has developed into an interesting discussion that has given Members an opportunity to discuss the Greek situation, make comparisons with our own position and tease out ideas in that regard.

The Greek situation is very interesting. Like Ireland, Greece is a former colony and for many years the Greeks were subject to a colonial power. In their case, they were under the Ottoman Empire, while Ireland was under the British Empire. Thereafter, they suffered under dictatorship for many years until finally in 1974, Greece became a democracy. Many of the problems with the Greek economy stem from that time. When a country is being run by a colonial power or a dictatorship, people indicate their opposition - there is still an element of this in Ireland - by refusing to pay taxes. They refuse to fund the entities responsible for keeping them down. Such entities use the mechanisms by which they remain in power to punish either their colonial subjects or their own people, whichever is the case. A culture has developed in Greece that the way to oppose those in power is to withhold one's taxes. As a result, people do not see the payment of taxes as a way to contribute to the functioning of the state. Neither do they perceive the payment of taxes as being essential in ensuring services will be provided for all citizens.

I read an article late last year in which it was indicated that in the first three months of 2011 in the city of Sparta which has a population of 40,000 only €24,000 was raised in VAT. If one considers the position in Dundalk or any other town of similar size in Ireland, one will discover that many millions in VAT would be raised in such a period. This underlines the problems in Greece, particularly in encouraging its people to accept that the duly elected government is theirs and that it is their state. The Greeks must be encouraged to have a sense of ownership and belonging when they pay taxes and make their contributions.

I was interested to discover the extent of tax evasion in Greece. I have seen evidence to the effect that in the region of €40 billion in tax goes unpaid each year. In most cases, it is those in the professional classes who are avoiding paying tax. There are stories which indicate that hospital consultants who live in the richest parts of Athens are declaring incomes of between €3,000 and €5,000 per year. It is not that long ago that similar things were being done in this country. All through the 1980s there was massive tax evasion on the part of the professional classes. They used Ansbacher accounts, other offshore accounts and various tax-avoidance measures in order to avoid paying their dues.

We should act in solidarity with the Greek people by helping them to develop a new taxation system in order that they might develop a sense of ownership of their state and feel they are contributing to it by paying tax. If the Greek Government could target those who are not paying tax and collect the €40 billion in unpaid taxes to which I refer, it would solve many of the problems Greece faces. However, we have seen fit to force on the Greek people further austerity and increased taxation. Greece has a huge public sector and those who work in it pay their taxes. Therefore, it is they who are suffering most as a result of the austerity programme. We are also forcing on the Greeks a massive programme of privatisation. I accept that they are getting a debt write-down which is welcome, but it remains to be seen whether this will actually come to pass. There has been a slight fudge in the context of some of the money involved being made available and a deal has still not been concluded on private sector involvement in the write-down. I hope this write-down will come to pass because it might be of some benefit to the Greeks in the future.

In the interests of solidarity, we should be assisting the Greek people and helping them to grow their economy and change their taxation system in order that they might collect the funds needed to run their state. We should not be forcing them to sell off their assets, mineral rights, airports, ports and all those public sector companies which could generate income for the Greek state. We should not be enforcing an ideologically-driven austerity programme which has been foisted upon us by Germany, France and, in view of David Cameron's comments in recent days, Britain. The model being imposed is one the proponents of which believe the market is king and should be protected at all costs.

In the context of the referendum on the fiscal compact treaty, Ireland is moving into territory where the ideology to which I refer is going to be enshrined in the Constitution. It will also be enshrined in law in other European Union member states. This ideology will tie us into austerity programmes and ensuring we will have balanced budgets forever more. That runs contrary to the previous orthodoxy which held sway in economics, namely, that in a time of boom taxes should be increased, while spending should be increased in a time of decline. Although we had boom and bust cycles, to a large extent, this approach worked for many years. Forcing austerity on the peoples of Greece, Ireland and other states across Europe is to the detriment of democracy and will only benefit the European banking system and the leaders of France, Germany and Britain.

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