Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The bullies got carried away with themselves. We are now in a farcical situation, in that a eurozone country cannot even re-open its banks. Depositors in many European states are afraid because the line has been crossed by the Eurogroup, in that levies can be imposed on depositors.

The Irish Government should not have signed up to this blackmail. For a country such as ours, the corporation tax rate of which has been in the firing line, it is foolish in the extreme to agree to a deal that would have forced Cyprus to increase its rates. Why was the Government a party to forcing Cyprus to raid the savings of EU citizens in order to pay for others' banking mistakes while letting senior bondholders off scot free?

Instead of piling pressure onto the Cypriot people, we should have been standing in solidarity with them and insisting on the full agreement of last June's Eurogroup statement. The European Stability Mechanism, ESM, should have been the vehicle to recapitalise Cypriot banks, not people's savings.

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