Dan Boyle (Green Party)

I must admit to being somewhat surprised to hear Members of the House speak of the relevance of today's statements. It is quite obvious that the situation in Greece is serious and has important consequences for our economy, as a fellow member of the euro currency. We need to be aware of events and how they might affect us. It would be a tragedy if, having made a series of difficult decisions which have proven unpopular but which are the right and necessary decisions towards correcting our economy in the short term, we were to fall victim of a failure of take similar political charge in another EU member state.

We must remember that at one stage, before we started getting a handle on our own economic difficulties, on the international bond market we were the euro currency country that was at the bottom of the league in terms of the cost of borrowing money, behind Greece itself. At that stage, the Greek Government made a fairly adamant statement that it would not implement the type of measures necessary to correct its own crisis. That has led to an air of uncertainty that has seen a fall in the value of the euro and placed a threat on the currency itself.

I am confident the currency can and will survive these particular threats, but they do have economic consequences, particularly for this country because the fall in the value of the euro will mean an increase in the cost of the money we have borrowed. It shows a lack of understanding of how international geo-economics affect this country for any Member of this House to state the situation in Greece is not important, is not relevant and does not impact on our economic situation. That is why it is important that the measures taken, and collectively agreed by the eurozone members, the European Union and the Greek Government, are seen to be appropriate.

Senator Norris spoke of the scale of measures that have been promised by the Greek Government, and they have already been taken. One must take into account that Greece is structured differently as an economy to Ireland. There was a political jibe once spoken about our own economy, that Ireland was the most socialised country outside of Albania. While that might have been true then in terms of the scale of our public sector, there is still a particular imbalance as regards the cost of our public services. However, in Greece the balance is even more in favour of public expenditure and that needs to be examined in a real sense at a time of economic crisis.

There has been a reluctance on the part of the Greek Government to face up to these realities. Greece, like our country, has an agricultural base and benefits from funds such as the common agricultural fund, although its farmers benefit, not in terms of beef, other animals, dairy, crops and plants, but instead through the subsidisation of tobacco products. That is another argument, but it is a situation where, in terms of European Union membership, and particularly membership of the eurozone, the Greek Government needs to be reminded of its responsibilities.

It is especially unfortunate that we find ourselves in this area of uncertainty because of the failure to take appropriate action. We cannot take any particular pleasure from it because Ireland, while having put a degree of distance between itself and a grouping of other countries that includes Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy, is by no means out of the woods. We require further additional action on the same course that we have taken to date. We need to do it into the medium term. We need to be consistent about the type of policies we are applying.

If all of that is undermined by the failure within the eurozone and other member states by Greece, then as a country we have a right to ask questions. Diplomatic niceties would mean that we might couch those reservations in terms of how diplomats and officials from each member government address this issue. We have a duty of care to the economy and citizens to ensure the hard decisions we have made will have the maximum beneficial effect and cannot be undermined by the lack of such political approaches in other member states. My hope is that there is a growing reality in Greece that there are proper support measures from the eurozone members and that this is a crisis that can be overcome. However, I note the contributions of other Members regarding the serious flaws exposed in terms of allowing member states to become members of the eurozone when they were not ready, the falsification of statistics and the use of international financial organisations to play loose and fast in meeting these statistics.

With regard to the position of Ireland and Greece, it must be borne in mind that Greece has a level of national debt which we last dealt with in the 1980s. Even after dealing with our own situation, including whatever measures we take to rescue our financial services, we will only be at a level of debt equal to the EU average. The scale of what must be done in Greece is important. As a fellow eurozone and EU member, Ireland has a collective responsibility to ensure it is addressed properly. However, I like to think we can do it as much by example as anything else, that we are not undermined in what we are doing and that in assisting the eurozone to achieve the necessary stability it does not undermine our economic recovery.