Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak to the motion. There appears to be some embarrassment that Syriza won the Greek election and is calling for the holding of a debt conference which the previous speaker referred to as a "talking shop". We have many talking shops such as ECOFIN and the Eurogroup, where we have failed to get this item onto the agenda. Syriza has a huge job ahead. It is picking up an economy from a right-wing government under which taxes, in the main, were not collected. As well as dealing with the huge debt, it also has to try to improve government systems, which will not be easy. I hope it will overcome the obstacles in the interests of the Greek people and we wish it well. Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting Kostas Chrysogonos of Syriza and was impressed by Syriza's commitment and determination to try to achieve a sustainable solution to the debt crisis in Greece and across the European Union.

One would think the Irish Government would welcome the call for the holding of a debt conference and, given the opportunity we have, that Ireland could strike a revised deal on the bank debt. However, the Government rejected it before it even got out of the traps. Surely, as the motion states, such a conference would be an ideal opportunity to address the massive burden placed on ordinary citizens in the nationalisation and socialisation of a debt accrued by private individuals and banks. It is ironic that institutions such as Anglo Irish Bank and their counterparts in other EU countries which operated with minimal respect for the economic and social interests of the states in which they operated were able to pass their debts over to the citizens so easily, particularly in this state. The citizens of Greece and Ireland have been subjected to years of austerity far out of synch with any normal adjustment that might be expected on foot of an economic downturn. The Irish people have been left carrying an very unfair burden and an unfair share of the European bank debt. Previous speakers were right when they said Ireland was not Greece. It is very different from it. However, this is the fourth most indebted country in the European Union and people are carrying large private debts.

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