Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I echo the words of my colleagues on this side of the House about the absolute horror and shock at the attitude taken by the Government, and in particular the Minister for Finance, on the Greek crisis recently. Until now, we have been surprised at and condemned the silence of the Government in the crisis and for not sticking with the Greek people. I would have preferred if it had remained silent rather than doing as it has done now. I cannot believe this country, in which so many of our fathers and grandfathers stood up for the rights of small nations in the Second World War, is now taking its line directly from the largest nations in Europe. It is quite extraordinary that a country that has been silent for so long on the great issues of Europe because it is frightened of opening its mouth has decided to openly take the side of those whom Deputy Boyd Barrett quite rightly called "the bullies". What is now going on is nothing short of economic bullying.

One can understand why large nations might do this, or why the Netherlands, Finland, France or the German satellites might do it, but why is Ireland doing it? I can only explain this through one particular idea, which is not new. It is because the Minister for Finance and the Government could not afford for Greece to get a good deal, or at least a better deal than they got for themselves. They were going to be embarrassed if a write-down came about or if a particularly belligerent attitude worked. That would reflect badly on the negotiations they carried out in 2012 and since. The Minister for Finance and the Government had a choice: they could back the bullies or they could back the smaller nation. They could turn to the high powers, the pillars of the European establishment, by whom they have been captured, or the people of Greece. They opted to go for the big powers. It was a shameful decision and the wrong decision. They could have made a case for the Greek people by standing up and saying "Stop." That would have had an effect.

This issue is not what we are getting today about the agreement or elements such as pension ages. The real issue is debt write-off. Nobody in this House believes that the Greek crisis will be solved without write-down, and it will happen. It may not occur this time but it will happen in future. The debt write-off will be granted to the Greeks sooner or later if the matter is to be resolved, and that will acutely embarrass Ireland. The noble action for us would be to admit that we negotiated badly and the Greek people deserve a write-down of debt. We should be supporting them.

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