 Ladies and gentlemen, first I want to thank you for hosting this very important event organized by the IIEA and the Commission. I think it's the second time that kind of seminar intervenes on the CSRs and I don't know if it's an important event but it's certainly a very good moment to exchange and to pursue the constructive dialogue that the Commission wishes to have with the Member States. As was explained a few minutes ago, the commissioners, especially Commissioner Dombrovsky, Vice-President Dorsky and myself, we are visiting the Member States in order to talk about this very important event and unknown times which is the European semester and we share the countries I was invited here in Ireland. I'm very pleased to come back to this country I know well. I've been for a long time European Affairs Minister, Finance Minister. It was always a pleasure for me to come and visit this country and especially in the circumstances that you today find because it's true that it's more difficult elsewhere. I'm not talking about any specific country but you might guess maybe what I'm talking about. It's a pleasure to be in Dublin today to present the first set of CSRs to be adopted. The Commission led me by President Jean-Claude Juncker. The pleasure is made all the greater as a result of the atmosphere. I would call that an atmosphere of hope and a renewal that one senses here in Ireland after years of difficult but necessary reforms. A clear sign that things have turned for the better is that Ireland was the fastest growing economy in the EU in 2014 and is if I look at our own forecast on track to remain in that position as well in 2015 and 2016. Real GDP is expected to surpass a pre-crisis level this year and this rebound is I'm a say truly remarkable and is tangible proof that adjustment and reforms do pay off when they are carefully designed and when there is a strong sense of national ownership and this is the case here in this country. A common understanding that adjustment and reforms may be painful in the short term but necessary and beneficial in the medium term is by experience the most important element that determines success. Still not everyone is yet feeling the benefits of the ongoing recovery to a sufficient extent in particular those who are and where most affected by the crisis. Although the unemployment rate dropped from more than 15% in 2012 to about 10% currently too many people I know remain unemployed or live in precarious conditions or bear the burdens of private high debts. The positive developments of late should therefore not lead to a sense of complacency. Major battles have been won and the Irish people must be and can be proud of that but it would be a premature to say mission accompli mission accomplished. In spite of the undeniable and remarkable progress made so far important challenges remain concerning body finances the financial sector and structural reforms. Some people may think that those challenges are merely legacy issues shadows from the past however I believe it would be wrong and risky to ignore the legacies of the crisis notably the high private and public debt. These legacies make Ireland still vulnerable to external shocks and as a small and extremely open economy Ireland is more exposed to external developments both positive and negative. The ongoing brisk economic recovery provides an ideal opportunity to complete the adjustment process. My view is that when the winds tailwinds are more favorable it's the moment to go on with reform not to stop or to backtrack. This is clearly the view of the Commission. This in this context that the Commission has put forward its CSRs to Ireland for 2015 and 16. Such recommendations have been addressed to EU member states as part of the European semester of economic policy coordination since 2011 as Lara Murphy explained in an effort to promote growth and job creation. The first full set of CSRs was addressed to Ireland only last year after it had successfully exited from the program and still two countries today do not benefit from that. It's Greece and Cyprus which are still in the framework of programs. Seven recommendations were made last year covering areas such as fiscal policy, financial sector reforms, the labor market, healthcare and legal services. The recommendations were very much reflected continuity after program completion while the program was completed with flying colors. It was clear that the adjustment process had to continue in view of the sheer size of the economic imbalances accumulated in the pre-crisis years. This year the Yonker Commission wanted to change the spirit of the CSRs and we were determined to streamline the European semester process and the CSRs. The purpose was to focus minds and energies on the EU's three key economic policy priorities namely a coordinated boost to investment. We all need investment. Europe suffers from investment gap. Second, a renewed commitment to structural reform and finally pursuing fiscal responsibility and we tried, I hope it's a success, to have CSRs which are lesser number and more strategic in their formulation. This streamlined and focused approach means that the commission has reduced the number of recommendations from all member states. We have also made the recommendations themselves shorter and more pointed while leaving it to member states to determine concrete implementing plans. And here I want to say that this commission doesn't consider itself as a teacher and does not consider the member states as pupils. I'm not here to lecture. Recommendation means suggestion, means analysis and then it's up to the national government to take the lessons out of the recommendations to pick what they want to apply and I think that's the best way to improve national ownership of those recommendations and to implement them. In the case of Ireland, this new approach means that the commission has put forward four country-specific recommendations for adoption by the council, three fewer than last year and if you want an element of comparison there are three recommendations for Germany where I was last week. There are six for France where I was also last week, six for Italy, six for Croatia, Etra, etc. And so we try to reduce and focus. The four areas for which recommendations are issued are as was said before, fiscal policy and taxation, healthcare reforms, work intensity of households and child poverty risks and finally banking sector reforms in particular related to non-performing loans. The first question you might legitimately ask is how the commission selected these four areas and why issues that were covered last year are no longer subject to recommendations. Why so? I think that this report took a broad view of the challenges faced by Ireland not only from a macroeconomic perspective but also in terms of structural and social issues. It concluded that Ireland had made progress in addressing past imbalances and preparing the ground for a sustainable recovery. But the report I'm talking about, which was published on February 26th, the country report, also highlighted remaining weaknesses. And it's on those weaknesses that I want to insist. It's not contradictory with my initial purpose but it's I think complementary. Let me then first explain what the 2015 recommendations are before turning to areas that have been streamlined. First on fiscal policy and taxation. This recommendation focuses on three components with a common goal, ensuring that fiscal policy is sustainable and geared towards promoting balanced growth and job creation. The fourth component calls on Ireland to continue adhering strictly to EU fiscal rules in 2016, in particular as it prepares to exit the corrective arm of the stability and growth pact and enter into its preventive arm, which will be a considerable achievement and which will authorize your country, Ireland, to benefit from the flexibilities that we mentioned in our communication of the 13th of January by this new commission. Converging to the objective of a balanced government budget by 2018 in structural terms is the best way to secure the hard-fought gains achieved so far. As mentioned before, the high level of public debt, a legacy of the crisis, means that Ireland remains vulnerable to shocks. For this reason, the recommendation calls on Ireland to avail of opportunities provided by the strong macroeconomic environment to accelerate deficit and debt reduction. The second component calls on Ireland to further broaden its tax space and review tax expenditures, but without calling for an increase in taxation. The third component also seeks to avoid a repetition of past mistakes resulting in pro-cyclical policies. Limiting discretionary powers to change expenditures' ceilings beyond specific and predefined contingency is needed to ensure the soundness of medium-term budget planning. We are not proposing that Ireland to stick to expenditure plans no matter what. In line with the common practice prevailing in other EU countries, we are recommending that expenditure plans be changed only in truly exceptional circumstances. Second recommendation is on health care reforms. The evidence from the past few years indicates that Ireland faces challenges in delivering health care costs effectively. Budget overruns have occurred systematically over the past few years and I know that pressures continue to build up. Public expenditure on health care is comparatively high among EU countries even though population health outcomes are by and large no better. This is why we believe that some structural reforms are needed there without seeking to be exhausted. The recommendation therefore indicates areas where cost effectiveness can be improved and this includes mostly as you know public spending on patented medicines whose prices are well above near EU average. Third recommendation on the work intensity of households and child poverty risks. Regardless of the indicators used, Ireland is among the countries in the EU with the highest proportion of people living in low work intensity households. This is only in part the legacy of the crisis and you know better than I do that it generates grave social challenges and raises the risks of child poverty. Low work intensity is also particularly severe among single adult households with children. Given the importance of the issue, the recommendation calls on Ireland to act on two key strands of reforms. The first is to ensure that work always pays and that remaining disincentives to take up a job are eliminated by the tapered withdrawal of benefits and supplementary payments upon return to employment. The second is to improve access to affordable childcare and indicated on which Ireland lacks far behind most OECD countries. Our fourth and last recommendation is on banking sector reforms. Ireland has come a long way in restructuring, downsizing and recapitalizing its domestic banks already and this is also a very strong achievement. It is not by chance that the government is now setting its sights on selling its remaining stakes in the banks. The disposals when they take place will enable Ireland to significantly reduce its public debt. They will also sharply reduce the final cost of the support measures that were necessary to address the banking sector crisis. In spite of the impressive progress achieved so far legacy challenges remain important. The government knows that. I'm talking about non-performing loans. They still represent about 23% of the total. This is one of the highest rates in the EU. It is also an impediment to the capacity of banks to support the economic recovery. As a result, the Commission continues to stress that further progress is needed in reducing non-performing loans. This is a case both in terms of mortgages in areas and in terms of the non-performing loans of SMEs. Finally, let me also say a few words on the areas that were subject to country-specific recommendations in 2014 but not this year. Does it mean that the Commission is fully, I would say, satisfied with the progress made in implementing these recommendations over the past year? Does it mean that the Commission no longer sees these issues as relevant for Ireland? The answer is, of course, that they are still relevant, very much so, but that progress has been made sufficiently that there is no specific recommendation for this year. In the area of labor market reforms, there is no denying that efforts under pathways to work and the action plan for jobs have paid off and the Commission recognizes that. The enrollment rate, as I said, has fallen from its peak of about 15% in late 2012 to 10% today on the back of rising private sector employment. This is a major achievement, one more, but of course there is much more to do on this front, especially in the view of the government's goal of increasing total employment to 2.1 million by 2018. I must say to be very frank that, of course, labor market reforms are a key benchmark for all countries in the EU and that almost all of them benefit from CSRs on that field. A number of important initiatives are continuing, not least of which is the forthcoming contracting out of employment support services to private providers under the job path initiative. Continued progress is also critical in making sure that further education and training programs are fit for purpose and respond to the needs of an evolving economy. We recognize this and will continue to monitor progress in the context of the European semester. Similarly, while the authorities have put in place major initiatives recently to improve SME access to finance, credit to SMEs, as you know, remain subdued. This is no doubt in part due to the still muted demand for credit, but in the coming months and years it will be necessary to assess whether the new instruments effectively address the financing challenges that SMEs are confronted with. As part of the program of financial assistance, Ireland committed to reforming the regulatory framework for legal services in order to reduce costs. The legal services regulation bill was indeed published in 2011, but the commission indicated on numerous occasions that progress towards enactment was frustratingly slow. Although the bill is still to be enacted, it cleared an important order in April by seeing sent to the shened. Further amendments are anticipated, but we are encouraged by the authorities' indications that enactment is now within reach and we trust that there will be a rapid conclusion to the legislative process. The commission, as I said, views enactment of the bill as an important first step towards the reduction of high legal services costs, which make it more expensive to do business in Ireland and are burdened on all citizens. The commission will therefore continue to closely monitor progress in the context of the European semester, as well as under post-programmed surveillance, given that the reform of legal services has been part of the program commitments. To conclude and to come to our exchange of views, let me briefly indicate what the next steps are. The recommendations, as Dara said, will be discussed along Member States in the next few weeks before their adoption by the council before the summer. It's process there. Ireland, as in the past demonstrated, it's the determination to advance important reforms, including in the context of the financial assistance program. It has also shown its determination in coordinating economic policies at the EU level, including in the context of the stability and gross impact and the European semester. This bodes well for the implementation of 2015 recommendation and will continue to have a very positive dialogue with the government. Today we had the occasion to meet. I will also meet with the Vice Prime Minister in a few minutes and, of course, with my friend Michael Mooney this afternoon after being heard by the Finance Committee of the Parliament. As I indicated already, the commission will monitor process progress on an ongoing basis as part of the European semester cycle. In February 2015, the commission also concluded that Ireland continued to experience macroeconomic imbalances that require specific monitoring and decisive policy action. As a result, progress in implementing the recommendations on fiscal policy and taxation and banking sector reforms will also be monitored as part of a semi-annual post- program surveillance missions. I focused, as I was asked to do, my recommendations, my remarks on our recommendations for Ireland and our recommendations by definition insist on what remains to be done to boost jobs and gross and ensure financial stability. But again, I want to repeat the spirit. The spirit is not that the commission is lecturing. The spirit is not that the commission is taking the arm of government in order to be rolling over national sovereignty. It's up to the government, it's up to the people to decide how they will put this recommendation into action. It's not up to us. And we want to have a positive dialogue with the governments and with the member states. But of course, we make subjections due to our analysis and then we pursue. This is the spirit of the European semester as we clearly see it. And I must insist on the fact that talking about recommendations, so insisting on what remains to be done, should not dilute my first message. And I will repeat it. My first message here today is that Ireland's recovery is a truly remarkable achievement. And it is an achievement of which this country, the peoples, the people in this country can feel proud. It's just a beginning. There are tremendous assets for the future. The commission's role is to support Ireland. It's in separate to ensure that this recovery is as broad based and durable as possible. And this is why sometimes we gave some advice on prudence. We spoke about prudence. It's always good to be prudent if we want to take the lessons from the past and avoid that some bad experience starts again. We want that the benefits of the recovery are felt by all Irish citizens. And this is the spirit in which we will continue to deal with these recommendations, to talk with the government and to try to improve our own policies. And this is maybe one subject we are going to talk about if we go over the even subject of our CSR. Thank you very much for your attention.