The Minister for Finance says the Irish taxpayer could lose €350m if Greece defaults on its debts.

Michael Noonan's warning come after the new Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, leader of the Syriza party, was sworn in to lead an anti-austerity government.

The new government is demanding a new round of talks so it can write off some of its €320bn in debts.

The election of the new government is top of the agenda at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels this afternoon.

Arriving at that meeting, the Minister for Finance Michael Noonan says Ireland could stand to lose out if Greece wrote off its debts

“The debt in Greece, 85 per cent of it is official debt. It’s owed to the IMF and to other European taxpayers.

“Even though we were in a programme ourselves we didn’t have to contribute the full amount.

“We contributed €350m to the Greek bailout so there’s €350m of Irish taxpayers' money in play,” he said.

Mr Noonan says Greece could be better off by doing some of the same things Ireland's done already.

“The issue for Greece is not debt cancellation - if I may say that with respect – it’s the affordability of the debt, so that means the interest rates and the maturities,” he said.

“If you look at Ireland’s situation, we’ve been restructuring debt all the time,” he added.