 I'm very happy to welcome you to the European Union. Welcome to our commissioner, Moscovici. I'm Dublain, I'm here today to visit the productive. Ladies and gentlemen, it's a great pleasure to be here, particularly to welcome so many of our ambassadors from around the European Union to Ireland who are extremely engaged and do a fantastic job for their respective countries and to the IIA and the European Commission's office to Barbara and everybody for hosting this very important event and it is a very good opportunity for us all to take stock of where we are as part of the European semester process. There are of course challenges but equally opportunities for all of us whether Irish or within our European family. Can I begin I suppose by identifying some of the key features the government has since 2011 identified a path for the country and there is now clear evidence that this recovery is both firmly on course and indeed well underway. Following the very severe contraction of economic activity and employment our economy has gladly been expanding since the middle of 2012 and GDP growth is and was the last year the strongest in the European Union. The 4% that we are predicting for 2015 should repeat the performance of the last two years as well as we are now seeing an overall increase in economic activity and getting back in many indicators to either to the pre-crisis levels. So 2015 should also be the second year in which we see a positive contribution from domestic demand. Domestic demand perhaps being one of the final pieces of our economy to recover. Department of Finance expects to see continued steady GDP growth averaging at around three to three and a quarter percent per annum to the end of this decade. And last week CSO figures from the QNHS, the Quarterly National Household Survey which covered the first three months of 2015 suggest that the recovery we are seeing in the labour market is also now quite strong and bedded down and really for all of us and certainly for the government since coming into office, the employment barometer has always been the most important and it is the most practical indicator for our households and for our citizens. The people in our country at work has increased by 41,000 or up by about 2.2% and it has been broadly across most sectors. The unemployment rate gladly is also now back in single figures and we have had 10 consecutive quarters of solid employment growth with meaning of course that the target of 100,000 net additional jobs that was targeted to be achieved by the end of 2016 has already been achieved. The recovery in the public finances is also firmly on track and the double digit extracur deficit that we inherited will be well below the 3% excessive deficit procedure ceiling this year and we are forecasting now a general government balance of minus 2.3% in 2015 and minus 1.7% in 2016. So I hope that the commissioner is noting all these figures down there I see him with his pen. With tax revenues growing and crisis related spending pressures also easing, we do now expect the public finances to record a primary surplus this year with the remaining gap reflecting debt servicing costs rather than the structural imbalance between taxes and spending which for so many years was of course the case. We have fortunately overperformed on deficit reduction in every year to date and we expect to see the deficit completely eliminated by the latest 2019 and possibly and hopefully sooner than that. Our debt-to-GDP ratio is also on a firmly downward trajectory gross public debt as you will all be aware peaked at 123% in 2013. We expect that to be 105% this year and back to 100% or even by the end of 2016 you'll be aware that net debt or national debt is significantly lower at approximately 85% but it's the general government deficit figures of course that the commission uses. So coming to the European semester this broadly speaking is a very positive backdrop to our participation in the European semester process and as you will all be aware the European semester essentially brings together the different strands of the European Union in a much stronger post-crisis economic governance arrangements and states are coordinating their economic policies and efforts to support a growth in jobs and we agreed that shared priorities at E-Level in the first half of every year now and then we implement the national level in the second half of the year which of course includes our own budget and our own budgetary cycle. So the European semester as you will be aware is essentially designed as a mutual surveillance process that is supported by the European Commission. The key lesson of the recent crisis period is that all member states need to recognize the significance and importance of these arrangements particularly insofar as the stability of our single currency is concerned and with a period of prolonged weakness in the wider Euro area probably representing the key risk to our own economic outlook we all stand to benefit significantly from a well functioning European semester process that guides our collective policies in the right direction and that also supports the right mix of monetary, fiscal and also crucially structural policies. This year's process is being advanced on the basis of three main pillars boosting investment, pressing ahead with key national and EU level structural reforms and continued growth friendly fiscal consolidation and I'm sure that Commissioner Moscovici will touch on those elements in his remarks in a minute but it is probably helpful to note that the 2015 the 2015 is actually the first year since the onset of the crisis in which all EU member states will actually be experiencing positive economic growth so that adds I suppose to the broadly positive backdrop that we have here in Ireland but also across the European Union. The economic sentiment is improving retail sales are up and private sector lending has finally turned positive again there is of course other elements such as lower oil prices the ECB's quantitative easing and not to mention the anchor package of 315 billion which are all feeding into a much greater positivity in addition to growth within our country. For the 2015 country specific recommendations the Commission included four proposed CSRs for Ireland in the semester package it produced about a month ago now in the middle of May and these cover firstly restoring balance to the public finances including through the measures that will be reflected of course in the budget secondly further improving the cost effectiveness of our health care spending with the future health reform program which was adopted in 2012 the third one is continuing to improve the arrangements we have developed for addressing the risks of intergenerational transmission of poverty through what are described as low intensity households while also strengthening importantly health care provision and finally completing the work underway to deal with the very difficult post-crisis legacy of non-performing loans in the financial sector. These CSRs have of course essentially been a continuation of last years and building from the comprehensive country report already produced by the Commission at the end of February and it has to be said it is consistent with the no surprises principle government politicians are particularly keen on the no surprises principle they therefore align well with policy directions that are already firmly established at national level and I think that for us is the key point that the CSRs that we have are completely in line with what we have identified for ourselves as the objective for this country in terms of what happens next the proposed CSRs will now be settled within the council over the next coming weeks the meeting of the employment and social affairs minister on the 18th of June will approve final CSRs on member states employment and social policies the finance ministers will meet on the 19th of June to approve the CSRs on member states stability programs and then the general affairs council which I'm a member of will improve integrated CSRs for endorsement in advance and then be endorsed by the European council two days later on the 25th and 26th of June so one of the most important lessons from the European semester process as it has evolved in recent years is the need for us all to become a more open and inclusive process including through more meaningful engagement by national parliaments and other key stakeholders we continue to aim for improving that balance both at national and EU level to allow for stronger economic governance arrangements on the one hand and stronger democratic participation on the other and this is why the government has produced its new spring economic statement at the end of April setting out a clear framework within which all stakeholders can contribute to the political dialogue that will inform the further decisions that will be taken in October's budget including of course having regard for the CSRs that will be endorsed and agreed at the June European council and that is why I see the discussion that we are having here today as exceptionally important the interrelated goals that we all share in the European Union of supporting growth and economic strengthening investment and expanding employment while continuing to improve public services is of course vital for all of us so it is crucial that our political choices in Ireland and elsewhere in Europe are informed by an open and inclusive dialogue that is shaped by the best available evidence and thankfully we have reached a point where the restoration of a positive trajectory for underlying economic activity can hopefully bring a more median term orientation to our perspectives and discussions so to finish up I think while there has been some commentary about the spring economic statement about the country specific recommendations about the CSRs and indeed about general changes that have come to bear in the budgetary process even the event today and the program events that Commissioner Mascovici has today by attending at our OCTIS committee for finance meeting our minister for finance and indeed being here with so many of our ambassadorial representatives members of our media and academics I think it's very positive because it does allow for a far greater degree of debate and consultation and long may it continue and so to thank IIEA for hosting this event and to all of you to thank you also for listening to me so patiently as I repeated in many instances figures and statistics which you will already have heard but I think it's important to let the commissioner know that while he visits 27 other member states he may find today a little bit easier than he will in some of his other visits and we wish him the very best in the vital role that he is doing on behalf of all of us in the European Union as commissioner in such an important portfolio. Thank you very much.