Finance Minister Michael Noonan has brushed off suggestions - from a key player in the Troika - that the government blew the chance to get a better deal on Ireland's debt when it came to power in 2011.

Former IMF head of mission for Ireland Ashoka Mody said the coalition was in a position to negotiate a debt write-off as well as a "slower pace of austerity" - but ended up going along with what Brussels and Berlin wanted.

Minister Noonan is attending a meeting of Eurozone Finance Ministers in Brussels today to discuss a deal on Greek debt.

The Finance Minister said Mr Mody did very little for Ireland when he was responsible for arranging our bailout programme:

Eurozone finance ministers are meeting today where it is expected they will decide on whether to extend or end the Greek bailout deal.

The newly-elected Syriza party does not want an extension, saying the terms of the bailout are crippling the Greek economy.

Yesterday, around 15,000 people took part in a mass rally outside the Greek parliament in Athens against austerity measures imposed on the country.

The new prime minister of Greece has said he is hopeful a debt deal can be agreed to keep the country in the Euro.

Ashoka Mody, former mission chief for Ireland at the IMF and Visiting Professor of Economic Policy at Princeton University, spoke to Lunchtime today about Greek restructuring of debt and the similar problems that Ireland faced. He told Lunchtime: "The key has to be that the relief is of a sufficient order of magnitude.

"It is not in anyone's interest to draw this out, not just from the Greek point of view but from the point of view of the European authorities. The longer this lasts, the deeper the political discontent, not just in Greece but spreading all over. The real problem today is not just an economic problem."

With the comparison being drawn with Greece and Ireland, Mr Mody declared: "Ireland had its opportunity."

"Ireland fell in with that culture, Ireland had its opportunity to, not just for itself but for Europe, in a way, Ireland in accepting the premise that Brussels and Berlin determine economic policy in every country. Ireland fell in with that premise and therefore perpetuated a culture that this current Greek government is trying to break."

Jonathan asked did we miss an opportunity to strike a deal to which Mr Mody replied: "Absolutely. The new government had so much going for it. In that case, it was even clear that there were clear mistakes that were made for a decade at least when this new government came in. There was a burden of debt that would legitimately be declared as an odious debt and this was not necessarily because there was something unique about this particular government but because there had been severe and egregious errors that it inherited."

"It was on that premise that it won the election and what the deal at that time could have been, I don't know but it should certainly have been a superior deal. That deal would have required a clear premise on some amount of debt restructuring."

"The Greek government today has reached a point where the burden has become much more intolerable than it was in Ireland."

On the issue of the water charges, Mr Mody said: "Was that necessary? Have the water charges become a symbol of that unequal burden?"

"I think they have become a symbol of the fact that the burden was borne unequally."

"It does fall on those who are least able to bear it."

You can listen to the full interview here: 

Originally posted at 14.09