Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

At a European level, discussions regarding Greece take place among euro area finance Ministers in the context of the Eurogroup. The procedure for dealing with all programme countries is as follows. The three institutions, namely the European Commission, the ECB, European Central Bank, and the IMF, International Monetary Fund, conduct technical discussions with the authorities. Where agreement is reached, this comes to the Eurogroup for endorsement. Alternatively, the Eurogroup can help provide political guidance and resolve outstanding issues.

On the current situation, discussions at a technical level have been difficult. At the beginning of June, progress at a technical level was made. At a subsequent meeting at political level between the Greek Prime Minister, Alexis Tsipras, the European Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, and the Eurogroup president, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, to discuss the proposal, it seemed like both sides were moving closer together. However, following the submission of Greek counter proposals on 12 June, it was clear there had been a complete rowing back on the Greek side and subsequent negotiations concluded with no agreement.

As a result, an additional Eurogroup meeting and informal European summit were called on 22 June 2015 in Brussels. The purpose of these meetings was to exchange views on Greece, as well as to clarify the positions and the situation in the ongoing talks between the Greek authorities and the institutions.A revised list of counter proposals was submitted by the Greek authorities yesterday. The Greek authorities will now work with the institutions to agree a comprehensive list of reforms and a list of prior actions by tomorrow that can be presented to the Eurogroup. The euro area has an obligation to Greece in these difficult times but Greece has an obligation to itself. It needs to reform its economy and return it to sustainable growth.

Ireland, together with other member states, understands and empathises with the difficult situation faced by the Greek people. This is why there has been a willingness to negotiate a way forward which takes account of the realities of the situation in Greece and the political priorities of its new government, while also respecting existing commitments. The situation of Greece's finances is challenging with immediate financing needs to be addressed. In addition, deposit outflows have continued from the banking system. Accordingly, urgent agreement on the necessary structural reforms is imperative to conclude the fifth review and release the associated disbursements.

Additional information not given on the floor of the House

On Greek debt, as I have repeatedly outlined, my view is that Greece should remain in the euro area and that sovereign debt should not be written off. However, there is, of course, some room for manoeuvre in terms of maturity extension and other ways to reduce the burden of debt. This is what we have done in Ireland, in co-operation with our European partners, with the extension of maturities on our EFSF, European financial stability facility, and EFSM, European financial stabilisation mechanism, loans, the replacement of the promissory notes with long-term bonds and the replacement of IMF loans with cheaper market-based funding.

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