Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

If the Minister has been following Syriza and the Greek finance Minister, Yanis Varoufakis, as closely as he proclaimed in answer to Deputy Doherty, he will know there is no proposal from Syriza for any taxpayers in Ireland, Spain or anywhere else to take the hit. Its proposal, contained in an academic paper, is for the debt of all indebted countries to be written down to 50% of GDP, with the ECB to take the balance, and it will come back on balance sheets as the debt comes down to a sustainable level of 50% or lower. Does the Minister agree that such a solution, if it were agreed on a European-wide basis, would save the Irish taxpayer €3.7 billion a year, which would go towards major infrastructural projects, house building and job creation? It would be a much better use of the money. It is inexplicable that the Government refuses to take advantage of the political opportunity opened by the election of the Syriza Greek Government to row in behind it and stake a serious demand for a significant write-down of the debt. The only explanation is because it will leave egg on the face of those who said we had a game-changer and had achieved a seismic shift as a result of being good pupils of austerity.

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