Minister urges support for Greek bailout legislation

IRELAND “MUST play its part and stand in solidarity with its fellow euro member states”, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said as he urged the Dáil to pass legislation giving effect to a second bailout for Greece.

The Euro Area Loan Facility (Amendment) Bill gives effect to the EU deal to extend loan terms and make an additional €130 billion in funds available to Greece.

Ireland took part in Greece’s first EU bailout programme of €80 billion by passing the Euro Area Loan Act 2010. However, once Ireland began its own bailout in 2010 it “stepped out of the Greek loan facility”. As an original signatory to the first bailout, the State’s consent is required to implement any amendments.

Before its own bailout deal Ireland lent €345.7 million to Greece, and the quarterly interest payments on this will reduce by €5.2 million under the legislation.

Fianna Fáil finance spokesman Michael McGrath said his party would support the Bill, “not out of any great sense of conviction that the second Greek bailout deal will necessarily work . . .”. But he did not believe “it is for the Irish parliament to seek to block a deal for Greece which the Greek parliament has backed, on which the euro group has signed off on”.

Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said while some would argue the legislation was an “act of solidarity with the people of Greece, the opposite is the case. The emergency funding being provided to Greece comes with conditions that are nothing short of an assault on the economic and social wellbeing of the Greek people.”

Socialist Party TD Clare Daly said every cent of the loans would be used to repay its debts while the troika “is demanding permanent austerity in the form of social expenditure cuts, massive privatisation, regression in economic and social rights and other actions that we have not seen since the end of the second World War”.