Greece’s ruling party was “disappointed” at the stance taken by Ireland in talks on averting a Greek default, one of its parliamentarians has said.

Stelios Kouloglou, an MEP who ran on the Syriza ticket, said he was disappointed by the positions taken by countries that had suffered during the crisis, including Ireland, Spain and Portugal.

"We were expecting much more solidarity from euro zone countries that were most affected by the economic crisis, and that were facing more or less the same problems - young people leaving the country, austerity programmes, blackmail and threats," he told The Irish Times.

“Like it was the case with Ireland when the Minister of Finance was obliged to accept the bailout.”

Former journalist

Mr Kouloglou, a former journalist who is close to prime minister Alexis Tsipras, said the mooted deal between Greece and its EU-IMF lenders was "a victory for the creditors" and amounted to a new austerity programme.

His concerns have been echoed by a number of Syriza figures in Athens on Tuesday, increasing the pressure on Mr Tsipras in advance of the conclusion of talks later this week.

Mr Kouloglou believed the troika’s aims were to “send a message” to Spain’s Podemos and other parties that sought to challenge austerity, but also to force a split in Syriza that would result in its far-left faction being jettisoned in favour of a less threatening minor coalition partner such as the centrist Potami party.

“I think there was an effort to humiliate Tsipras, to discredit him in the eyes of voters and supporters.”

Capital controls

It was reported on Monday that Minister for Finance Michael Noonan had sided with his German counterpart Wolfgang Schäuble at a euro zone ministers' meeting in suggesting that further emergency liquidity should not be given to Greek banks unless capital controls were imposed.

Mr Noonan played down the report in the Dáil on Tuesday and said he believed it was important that an agreement with Greece was negotiated by Thursday at the latest.

“That is my position,” he added. “Anything else is based on leaks, suppositions and spin.”

Of Greece’s diplomatic isolation, Mr Kouloglou said: “When you have 18 governments against you and you are only one, and you’re weakened by five years of crisis and social instability, it’s very difficult to win.

“You have to make a ceasefire. And this is a ceasefire that has been imposed mainly by the other side.”