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

I was not referring to a reduction in interest rates but rather a reduction in the principal, with the reduction in the total amount of debt to 50% of GDP as per the Syriza proposal. This is not a question about the Greeks seeking a "Greek ask" and we, the Irish as creditors, all of a sudden seeing how we would react to it. It is a question of whether an ask can be made by the 99%, the mass of people in Europe, who have all suffered at the hands of this austerity policy to bail out bankers and bondholders. The mass of people in Ireland should be allies of the people in Greece as we are on the same page. The Government likes to emphasise that Ireland is not Greece and all of the differences which exist. Greece has €100 billion more debt than Ireland but pays only €500 million more in interest last year. We paid €7.5 billion and it paid €8 billion. Our private banking debt as a percentage of GDP in Ireland is 25% whereas the Greek debt is 12.2%. Similarly, all the money that has gone to Greece and Ireland has gone back out to pay the banks and the bondholders. There are differences, but fundamentally people have suffered and it is not sustainable from the point of view of ordinary people to continue the policy of austerity, and have massive primary surpluses targeted in Greece and in Ireland which will only come at the expense of public services, jobs and living conditions.

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