Noonan has ‘stabbed the Greek government in the back’

Greece has been “stabbed in the back” by Finance Minister Michael Noonan, Opposition TDs have said.

Independent deputy Finian McGrath questioned whether the minister had been “got at” by ECB chiefs after he appeared to change tack on Greek demands for a debt conference, and said that the Government had missed an opportunity to ease the austerity burden on Ireland.

“They should have supported the principle of a debt conference to see if they could go in there and see if we can renegotiate the situation a little bit further,” said Mr McGrath.

“We should not have stabbed the Greek government in the back. The really scary thing is that a few weeks ago Minister Noonan hinted that he was a little bit in favour of debt conference and now in the last week he’s changed his mind completely, and now they are sticking it to the Greek government.

“Did somebody get to the minister from the EU or ECB over the last five days, because there is definitely a change in tone.”

Fianna Fáil finance spokesman Michael McGrath also criticised the stance, saying the Government had got better deals in the past because of Athens taking a strong line with the EU.

“I don’t think we have anything to fear from a debt conference,” said Mr McGrath. “I absolutely accept that we are in a very different place to Greece. The issue for Ireland is that we still have an outstanding issue on bank debt.”

Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney denied that Mr Noonan had been influenced by pressure from the Eu, insisting that Ireland had already changed the rules through diplomacy.

Mr Noonan told the Dáil he did not change tack.

“When I was asked the question what would happen if Syriza won the election in Greece and if they wrote off debt, I expressed the view that they probably wouldn’t seek to write-off debt in a unilateral fashion because I had read their election manifesto and they proposed a debt conference, and I made the point that if they were proposing a debt conference then their intention was to negotiate, not take unilateral action, and that’s the context in which I was talking about a debt conference,” he said.

“I have come across no proposal from the new government that a debt conference should be put in place.”