Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The succession of summit and Council meetings over the past few weeks has, unfortunately, produced nothing positive. Instead they have exposed yet again the failure of leaders to work together in a positive and ambitious way to tackle the enormous crisis engulfing the European Union. It is the inflexible extremes which have been allowed to dominate and have escalated problems to a stage where profound damage may be done to both the economy and the politics of Europe. Citizens are looking on in despair and frustration. In all of the back and forth, the emergency meetings, the name-calling, the posturing and the ultimatums, the one thing which has not been tried thus far is compromise. The people of Greece and Europe have been caught in the middle of a fight between a failed orthodoxy and a cynical radicalism. In all of this, our Government has chosen the role of vacuous cheerleader for an unsustainable and damaging policy. The Taoiseach and the Minister, Deputy Noonan, have publicly tried to backtrack from their support for an inflexible approach but the record stands. It should be Ireland’s policy to seek a true reform of the eurozone and a sustainable path to growth for member states, but nothing of the sort has happened.

Equally, others in this House have offered the empty posturing of demanding that the Greek Government be given whatever it wants without any requirements. In their view, money is no problem and there is no such thing as a tough and responsible choice. Whatever happens in Sunday’s referendum, the only thing which is not in doubt is that the crisis will continue. The Greek Government has decided to hold a vote but it has not offered its people any clarity in what they are actually voting on. The Syriza Government bears a large amount of the blame for what is unfolding. It has failed consistently to enter negotiations in good faith. It has regularly abused and insulted people and countries at the same time as seeking their money. It has undertaken high-profile trips to different capital cities but never once published a credible plan for controlling the long-term deficits or tackling the tax administration failures which are at the root of Greece’s problems. Every time it has produced a proposal this has fallen apart within hours. Gimmicks and made-up figures have defined a lot of the measures. As of yesterday there is no bailout programme to be continued and there is no deal to be voted on. Prime Minister Tsipras's letter of yesterday seeking €29 billion over the next two years was more about giving the impression he was doing something than actually trying to get a deal. There is no specific proposal on relief on old debt and no commitment to taking actions which would allow new debt to be repaid.

What is quite cynical about the letter is that it cites treaty articles as a basis for demanding solidarity without mentioning that the very same provisions require that support can only be given following the agreement of a memorandum of understanding setting out what the recipient government is going to do in return for it. This letter has allowed Syriza to claim to have a plan for what to do next while actually only having another demand rather than a plan.

Fundamentally, Syriza has refused to accept the basic idea that if one wants other people’s money one does not get to act unilaterally. It has also refused to acknowledge that other governments have their own democratic mandates which are often far in excess of the 36% which Syriza won. The Greek Government was indeed elected on a platform of ending austerity and it is entitled to pursue this aim. However, it was also elected on a platform of promising to stay in the euro and to accept the responsibilities which come with that. What it offered the Greek people was a campaign of slogans and easy answers. It never set out exactly how it intended to achieve entirely contradictory objectives and in government it has regularly fallen back on election slogans when faced with the hard reality of delivering.

There are many parallels with what we have heard here in the last five years. During our referendum on the fiscal treaty it was the position of Sinn Féin and others that Europe should be told to get lost. When challenged in debates to say where they proposed getting the billions needed to fund public services if the bailout terms were ripped up as they demanded, all we heard was stuttering emptiness. In debates, both Deputies Doherty and McDonald insisted that there would be no problem raising the billions and that there was no need to cut anything that mattered. This is cynical politics of the worst kind and it is something which we are seeing worked out before our eyes in Greece.

It is very striking that a round-up by the international media of political parties which have come out in favour of Greece voting "No" listed Sinn Féin, along with France’s National Front. So far, the principal uniting feature between parties calling for a "No" vote is that they are stridently anti-Europe. In terms of the claim that Greece is somehow being punished for electing a radical left government, this is more empty rhetoric. Lenders want a credible route to getting their money back. There is nothing unreasonable about that, particularly as the bulk of the lending is being done by countries, including Ireland, which have to borrow in order to lend to Greece. Some 80% of the debt is public debt. This fact is very often lost in this current debate.

If the Syriza Government had entered negotiations in good faith five months ago; if it had put aside the angry speeches and the staged photo-opportunities with enemies of the European Union, the crisis would not have reached this stage. It is being said that a "No" vote will lead to Greece exiting the euro. Legally, this is not clear-cut. No euro member may be forced to leave other than by being excluded from membership of the Union as a whole. The relevant treaty provisions provide little basis for expelling Greece from the Union. Some form of a deal will be required whatever the result of Sunday’s vote. Let no one forget the fact that Greece needs debt restructuring if it is to have any realistic chance to return to growth. The refusal to contemplate it so far may have been reinforced by the aggression shown by Syriza towards lenders but this does not change the fact that it is required.

Debt restructuring is going to happen one way or the other, either by a chaotic default or by a structured agreement. This is simple economic reality and no amount of political wishful thinking is going to alter this. Ireland’s opposition to debt restructuring appears to be based solely on our Government’s determination to deny Greece something which Fine Gael and Labour once claimed was vital but ultimately failed to even ask for. Four years ago, Fine Gael and Labour said that relief from debt incurred to recapitalise the banks was an urgent necessity. They said that the Irish people should not have to carry the full burden of these debts. Three years ago they went further and announced that they had all but secured relief from this debt, with the Minister, Deputy Noonan announcing that he would not say how many billions we would get because he might be able to wrangle more than his bottom line. As a series of freedom of information requests submitted by Fianna Fáil revealed, not only have we received no debt relief but our Government did not even ask for any. It is over two years since the Taoiseach even mentioned debt in a communication with a European leader.

I have noted a clear habit of the Taoiseach when he is caught out on something. He either denies he ever said it or he tries to twist his owns words to mean something else entirely. Unfortunately, this has been on display again during the past week. When he claimed that Ireland had managed to get through the crisis without increasing taxes on income, VAT or other taxes, he was making a statement which was completely and undeniable false. Yesterday he could not even admit to that. The 45 tax increases imposed by his Government were not imagined by people; they happened and they have hurt. What is more cynical is that in his lecture about how Ireland got through the crisis he praised himself and his Government for taking decisive action which they had actually voted against. The majority of measures which consolidated our budget were in place before the Taoiseach came to office. The late Brian Lenihan introduced budgets which were fundamental in consolidating our fiscal position and the Taoiseach railed against them and voted against them at every opportunity. Those measures were fundamental to sorting out the fiscal issue and creating the foundations for the economic recovery.

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