MINISTER FOR Enterprise Richard Bruton moved yesterday to draw a clear distinction between Greece’s troubles and Dublin’s execution of its bailout programme.
“I think the point we’re very much trying to emphasise is that the Irish case is entirely different and I think that’s recognised,” he told Irish reporters on the fringes of an EU meeting in Brussels.
“I don’t think we should be deflected by headlines of today. This is a longer game that is just responding to the immediate crisis in Greece, which obviously is very real at the moment,” he said. “The Greeks have a difficulty in either correcting their public finances or generating export recovery and we are on track on both of those.”
Mr Bruton, who also briefed international correspondents in Brussels yesterday, said assertions by Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar over the weekend did not represent Government policy.
He also dismissed suggestions that the continued exclusion of Greece from private debt markets could hamper the Government’s plan to make its return to the markets next year.
“The Minister for Finance has made it clear that we would want to get back into the market next year . . . that what we’re working towards with the policy agenda is to get back into the markets next year.”
The Minister also insisted Dublin had no interest in pursuing longer repayments on its existing debt.
“Ireland has entirely turned its face against that. We are not in the business of seeking reprofiling or restructuring or any other euphemism for what would be changing the terms of our bonds, that’s not what we’re about,” he said.
European officials said talks between the EU-IMF bailout “troika” and the Greek government are considerably more challenging than its engagements with Dublin. Greece faces threats that the next €12 billion will not be released as a result of failures over its reform programme.