Dara Murphy (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The private sector was involved in the restructuring of Greek debt in 2012. It was recognised at that time that Greece could not pay.

Our debt burden has been significantly eased by policies adopted by our European colleagues through the self-same negotiation. These included the promissory note deal, lengthening of maturities on the European Financial Stability Facility, EFSF, and European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism, EFSM, debt and facilitating the early repayment of our IMF debt. These responses were specific to our respective and different situations. If there are developments in a Greek context that could be of wider interest to Ireland, it is something that we would be willing to explore. Given the differences between our situations, however, it is difficult to see what they could be.

Of immediate and more important interest to Ireland is the overall fiscal and monetary stance of the eurozone. I agree with Deputy Martin, who suggested that the quantitative easing measures of recent weeks were overdue and welcome. In that regard, we wish to see those member states that have greater fiscal room for manoeuvre using it effectively.

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