Shane Ross (Independent)

I am sure the House is aware the Minister for Finance got high praise in the Lex column of the Financial Times this morning. It is very encouraging when it comes from a quarter which is as influential and as independent as that. It is not the first time that he has been applauded for his conduct of the economy of this country and we should acknowledge that. I notice that Senators Coffey and Boyle asked that the Minister come into the House to debate the issue of Greece because this issue is fundamentally difficult for Ireland. I have noticed, as everyone would have, that the question at the moment appears to be whether Germany will bail out Greece, but the question also ought to be if Ireland will bail out Greece. There is something odd and peculiar about the fact that we are being asked to pay €600 million to bail out Greece in the next few weeks and, apparently, we are willing to do so. We have a bigger deficit than Greece. Will we next be asked to bail out Portugal and after that to bail out Spain, although not necessarily in that order? I would like to know what role we are playing in these negotiations or is it just Germany that is being asked to do this? We cannot afford to keep bailing out other nations in Europe. That is the reality of it. From where will this money come? I do not know from where the €600 million will come.

Last week we were talking about Anglo Irish Bank bailing out Quinn Insurance. This is all pie in the sky stuff if it continues. We need to know what is the Government's thinking on that and what the Minister and his officials are doing in these negotiations, which are going on now, or are we just bystanders? Will we just write the cheque? Every penny that we would pay to bail out Greece would be borrowed from somewhere else. Are we willing for future generations of this country to bail out Greece, Portugal, Spain and everybody else on what may well be, particularly in the Greek case, a hopeless cause? It would be useful if the Minister came into this House and told us what we are doing in this respect and if he did so immediately. This is urgent. We should debate urgent matters in this House. The Minister should do that immediately and tell us what is happening in these talks and what role, if any, Ireland will play beyond writing a cheque with borrowed money.