Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The last few weeks have been another shameful chapter in the period of office of the Government when it comes to solidarity and internationalism with Greece and other people throughout Europe who are suffering under the cosh of austerity. It is really treacherous that the Irish Government has lined up with the austerity bullies of the EU against the Greek people. Last week the Taoiseach said Greece must face up to its responsibilities. What a shocking and ignorant statement to make. The people of Greece have more than faced their responsibilities and at a very terrible cost in that since austerity started 1 million jobs have been lost; there has been a 190% increase in unemployment; 30% of businesses have closed; there has been a 38% average salary reduction and a 45% average pension reduction; there has been a 42.8% increase in child mortality and a 98.2% increase in poverty; and two people commit suicide every day in Greece, a dramatic increase in suicide rates. All of this has resulted in almost one third of GDP being slashed.

The Greek economy has been devastated. This is as a result of austerity and implementing the troika's programme, not because they resisted but because previous governments implemented the austerity programme. It devastated the society and the economy. The notion the Greeks were overspending is nonsense. Greece has historically underspent in social spending as a proportion of its GDP. It had caught up to some extent only recently, until this austerity was imposed. It still spends three percentage points less, for example, on social spending than Germany, the Government of which is ramming this brutal austerity down the throats of the people and saying they have not given enough. Shamefully our Government played the best boy in the class routine yet again for its comrade in the European People's Party, Angela Merkel. I honestly wonder does the Taoiseach bring an apple to Mrs Merkel every time he goes to see her, like the little teacher's pet sucking up to Angela Merkel and the head of the EU bullies. The irony of this is what the Government gets in reward for sucking up to Angela Merkel and the austerity bullies. We got the answer to this yesterday when the IMF turned around and told the Government to be careful with what it does in the budget as it is not happy with any talk of pay restoration. For all the sucking up and treachery in terms of the Greek people, the IMF is still bossing the Government around.

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