Noonan warns next month is ‘endgame’ for Greek talks

Political Correspondent Minister for Finance Michael Noonan has said the time frame for preventing a Greek default has become "incredibly tight", with July being the absolute "endgame" for negotiations.

He told an Oireachtas committee last night that the problem did not so much resolve around Greek failing to meet repayment deadlines, rather that parliamentary approval would be needed in some EU countries before the summer recess.

He said that even if Greece failed to make its IMF repayments at the end of this month it would not be in default but would have the status of being in arrears for another calendar month.

"Greece needs extra money not to default. In certain countries a parliamentary process is needed [to ratify that]. Germany is one of the countries. Parliaments go into recess in July. There is very little space available to authorise the payment. In terms of payments there is €3.5 billion due to the ECB on July 20th."

Fine Gael Senator Paul Coghlan claimed Greece had falsified positions and lied to get into the euro. "Can we kick them out of the club and get them back to the drachma?"

Off the rails

Mr Noonan said there was hope of an agreement between all side from the Berlin meeting this month but since then Greece had “gone off the rails”.

“My great regret that Greece, which was on the cusp of recovery at the start of 2015, has now gone back into recession.”

Responding to Sinn Féin’s Peadar Tóibín, Mr Noonan said the Government’s position from the start had been it wants Greece to stay in the EU but it does not want a write-down of its debt.

Paul Murphy of the Socialist Party said talks were being conducted "to inflict humiliation on the Greek government and Greek people, to send out a message 'don't vote for Podemos in Spain and don't vote for left-wing parties in Ireland or Portugal'."

Michael Noonan rejected this, saying the organisations were in negotiation in good faith.