 Okay. Welcome everyone. Thank you for coming. It's to our by now annual event on the country's specific recommendations. I'd like to thank our speakers, our panelists, and in particular our visiting panelists for coming to join us today. So the running order will be, Carlos will speak first. I'll introduce him in a moment. The minister will be here in about 20 minutes. We'll then speak at that point. We'll then have a debate on Chatham House, with the Chatham House rule. In other words, you can use the information but can't attribute to people where you heard it from. So with that, I'd like to further ado, let me introduce our first speaker, Carlos Martinez-Monga, as Deputy Director General of the European Commission's Directorate General for Economic and Financial Affairs. Since joining the Commission in 1992, he's occupied many positions, including head of cabinet for Vice President of Almunia and Councillor for Economic and Monetary Union, the cabinet of Commissioner Pedro Solbez. Can I hand over to you, Carlos? Thank you. Okay. Selay Moldear or? Wherever you're most comfortable. Okay. Then I can stay here. I think he's more comfortable. So no, Dan, thank you very much for this introduction. Thank you very much to all of you for coming here and for the interest that you show with respect to the work we do in the Commission and in the EU, because we are talking about the European semester and therefore is a joint work of the European Union. It's not only the Commission. I will come back to this later and allow me to thank the Institute for International and European Affairs and our colleagues in the representation. I see them here for organizing this event, which in spite of some incidents in the street, I see that all of you have managed to find the way. So very happy to be here. I understand that today what we will try to do is to discuss the country-specific recommendations for Ireland. As you know, these recommendations were adopted by the College of Commissioners last week on Wednesday the 5th. But before I start with the first with some key issues related to the European semester and also to the country-specific recommendations, let me recall you something that we have sometimes the tendency to forget. Let me clarify at the outset that these recommendations are what the Commission considers the Council should recommend to the Member States to say it in a different way. The country-specific recommendations are not the recommendations of the Commission to the Member States, but the country-specific recommendations are the recommendations that all the Member States make to each Member State. Therefore, it's something which implies which involves to all the Member States and I'm more than happy to see that this is interesting enough as to gather here such a big audience. But let me be clear, it is not the Commission that comes from Mars and asks the government to do something. It is our pair, so it is the other governments that ask each government to do something in the common interest of the European Union. So the country-specific recommendations or the CSRs in the jargon we use in Brussels are a key step of the European semester. As you know, the European semester is the cycle of coordination of economic policies within the European Union. Although I'm sure that all of you are familiar with what the European semester is, allow me simply one minute, one page in the speech to let's say recall what the keystones of the European semester. The European semester starts in November, the European semester of the GRT starts in November of the GRT-1 with the adoption by the Commission of the so-called autumn package. Among others, this package includes four main documents. First, the annual growth survey. Second, the alert mechanism report. Third, the draft joint employment report. And fourth, the recommendations for the Euro area. The growth survey, the annual growth survey, defines the policy priorities for the year ahead at the European level. The recommendations for the Euro area provide advice on issues relevant for the functioning of the Euro area as a whole. The alert mechanism report in turn defines countries that might be affected by economic imbalances. And finally, the employment report analyzes the employment and social situation in Europe. So this is the so-called autumn package which at the end of the day establishes the main policy priorities for the European Union as a whole and for the Euro area in particular. The second key step takes place in winter with the publication by the Commission of the Country reports in February. These reports, which I think all of you know and as a matter of fact, we have presented this year here in Dublin, these reports provide a holistic assessment of the economic and social situation in the member states. The reports assess the progress made in implementing past country specific recommendations. With respect to island, the Commission concluded for instance that substantial progress had been made in reducing long-term mortgage areas. At the opposite stream, the Commission considered that the progress to control the expected increase in age-related public expenditure or to enhance the productivity of domestic firms had been limited. The Commission also found that island continues to face macroeconomic imbalances related to large stocks of private and public debt and net external liabilities. The reports, the country reports serves as well as the basis for an intense dialogue. The European semester is mainly about dialogue. The European semester is not about simply recommendations or analysis, it's about dialogue. In every step, we want to enhance the dialogue between the Commission, the authorities and the stakeholders. As I said, the reports serve as the basis for an intense dialogue at the different technical and political levels between the Commission and the authorities. On this basis, the authorities prepare the national reform programs and the stability programs in the case of countries in the euro area or the convergence programs in the case of countries outside the euro area. And on this basis, so taking into account the country reports but also the national reform programs and the stability programs prepared by the authorities, as well as the dialogue we have engaged with the authorities and the stakeholders on this basis, we, the Commission, we prepare the country-specific recommendations. I must say that I had a pleasure or I had the pleasure to participate in this kind of dialogue already in March including with members of the Parliamentary Oversight Committee, a large group of Irish stakeholders and members of the government. So, and that was simply a part of the dialogue engaged between the Commission and the government or the authorities. Allowed me to use this opportunity to thank all of them for their valuable input and constructive assessment. I think that the process, that in the process we reached consensus that we expected robust economic growth but that downside risks were significant. So, to say in a different way, I think that all of us, we agree that growth is still strong but that there are still vulnerabilities in the economy and a series of downside risks that can threaten this growth path of the Irish economy. In particular, the openness of the Irish economy makes it sensitive to external shocks. The UK's withdrawal from the EU represents an obvious downside risk. Moreover, the country is clearly exposed to changes in the international taxation and trade tensions. In this context, the country-specific recommendations aim at building resilience of public finances and reduce the reliance on multinational companies by strengthening the domestic corporate sector. Let me now present the country-specific recommendations for the country. The Commission recommends the Council to address challenges in three areas. The first area is budgetary policy including taxation and sustainability of public finances. The second area is unemployment and social aspects and the third area is investment and productivity. The country-specific recommendation number one addresses compliance with the EU fiscal rules. It reflects projections of the Commission 2018 spring forecast and the assessment of the stability program. Ireland is in the preventive arm of the stability and growth pact, you know, and we recommend Ireland to achieve the MTO of minus 0.5 next year. The MTO is expressing what we call the structural balance, so the budget balance taking out all the influence of the cycle. And therefore, we consider that the minimum-term objective, so the definition of the structural balance for the areas economy is at minus 0.5 of GDP. In addition, given the downside risk and the volatility, the of some sources of government revenue, we consider that the government should use any windfall gains, windfall revenues, in order to accelerate the reduction of the general government debt ratio. Also, in order to make revenue more resilient to adverse shocks, we consider that tax expenditures should be limited and that the tax basis should be broadened. The Euro recommendation recalls the extent to which it is essential to make tax systems more fair and efficient. In particular, there is a need to avoid the loss of substantial revenue that could be used to promote jobs and growth in Europe. The Commission acknowledges the progress made to fight aggressive tax planning. However, the high level of royalty and dividend payments as a percentage of GDP suggests that challenges remain. The Commission recommends that island addresses features of its tax system that may facilitate aggressive tax planning and focus in particular on payments from the EU to non-EU residents, so what we call the outbound payments. Concerning long-term sustainability, the country report identified risks related to the cost of aging, especially on health care and pensions. It is therefore important for island to pursue its envisaged pension reform. In the area of health, the implementation of the slain-take care strategy should be enhanced by increasing the cost effectiveness of the health care system. Concerning the country-specific recommendations number two, which is focus on employment and social challenges, the analysis of the Commission allowed to conclude that labor market outcomes remain favorable with an employment rate around pre-crisis level. However, as the labor market titans, skilled shortages are becoming increasingly apparent in fast-growing sectors, most notably in the construction and information and communication sectors. Moreover, some groups, like the most vulnerable, are still facing considerable challenges. Among others, I would recall that, first, the participation rate of people with disabilities in the labor market is among the lowest in Europe. Second, female participation in the labor market also remains rather low, mainly due to caring responsibilities. I can also recall that the number of people living in households with low work intensity remains the highest in the EU. On this basis, the Commission recommends to increase the provision of personalized integration and upskilling, in particular to vulnerable groups and people living in households with low work intensity. It is also recommended that to increase the access to affordable and quality child care. Finally, and turning to the third recommendation, let me recall that the Commission has put investment at the core of the European semester. The idea is to promote sustainable and inclusive growth. In fact, all the member estates have this year a recommendation in the area of investment. In addition, the current European semester cycle runs in parallel with the negotiations of the multi-annual financial framework for the period 21-27, which sets the EU public in view of the investment priorities for the coming 10 years. The programming of EU funds may contribute to addressing some of these investment gaps, in particular in the areas covered by the NXD that we published in the country report and that has been discussed already some months ago. In the case of Ireland, the country report identified investment challenges on the availability of affordable and social housing and of appropriate infrastructure in the areas of clean transport and energy, water, and digital infrastructure. This not only poses barriers to investment but also results in social challenges such as homelessness. In addition, the steady rise of greenhouse gas emissions also requires additional efforts, not only for its environmental benefits but also because a lack of action could involve high costs by 2030. As a result, the Commission suggests focusing investment projects on areas such as low carbon and energy transition, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and sustainable transport of water and digital infrastructure. In addition, the supply of affordable and social housing should be a priority as well. Finally, the Commission finds that the productivity of the Irish domestic companies is lower and growing at a lower pace in comparison with the multinationals operating in Ireland. Business research and development expenditure continues to increase but it remains below the EU average and highly concentrated in the foreign-owned firms. Tax credits, which barely benefit domestic firms, remain the main instrument of public support for research and development in the country. The existence of regulatory barriers in some sectors also hampers firms' competitiveness. All this is particularly harmful for small and medium-sized enterprises, which, unlike larger firms, cannot internalize the high regulatory costs. Therefore, there is room to design innovation policies to better support SMEs and to reduce regulatory barriers to entrepreneurship. This may also help Ireland to reduce the risks associated to its increasing dependence on activities of a limited number of foreign firms. These are the reasons why the Commission encourages Ireland to implement the future jobs strategy to diversify the economy. We have also recommended to enhance the productivity of indigenous firms, in particular SMEs, by using more direct funding for research and innovation and by reducing regulatory barriers to entrepreneurship. In some, and I finish here, in some, as I said before, the Commission recommends a comprehensive package to promote inclusive growth and to enhance the resilience of the Irish economy. So what are the next steps? As I said, the European semester is mainly about dialogue. With the adoption of the recommendations by the Commission, what we see now, or what is happened now, is that a discussion among governments in the Council should take place that the recommendations should be endorsed by the leaders and the recommendations, the final version of the recommendations, should be adopted by the national finance ministers in the ecofin. Then the implementation phase will begin and this will require, in some cases, new policy initiatives. In other cases, simply the rolling out of existing ones. This will also require the alignment of the European national funds with the priorities identified by the country-specific recommendations. From our side, the Commission, we will continue monitoring the implementation of these years and past country-specific recommendations when the new cycle will start again in November. So I think that I could stop here. Of course, I thank you very much for your attention and I look forward for a frank and open discussion in this afternoon. Thank you very much. Thank you, Carlos. Could I just put an apology for the Irish summer? It's obviously not a bad effect. I don't think it's the fault of the Irish summer. Just a very general question. Your ultimate boss, Jean-Claude Juncker, once famously said, we all know what we need to do, the problem is getting elected, how should we do it? To what extent do you think the post-crisis structures put in place, including the semester process, country-specific recommendations, to what extent has that helped politicians implement needed reforms? Well, I don't think that I have, let's say, very definitive answer in the sense that I can give clear proofs of what I'm going to say. But I would like to go back to what I said at the beginning. The fact that the country-specific recommendations are not recommendations made by an external body to the member states, but they are recommendations made by the member states. So I think that here we have something which is critical to, let's say, to enhance implementation of complex reforms, which is peer pressure. And this is the reason why, also, we put a lot of emphasis in our country's reports on spillovers, so that member states are aware that they are not alone, that what they do in the respectives of the governments, what they do in the respective countries, has an immediate impact in other countries, and therefore, or even to say in a different way, the lack of action in one country has impacts, has negative impacts in other countries. So I think that the European semester has made two things which, let's say, which go in the right direction, in the direction that you pointed, to avoid, let's say, the short terms of the governments, so that on the one hand, I think that with the country reports, what we have done with the country reports and the subsequent discussion and dialogue with the country reports, what we have done is mainly to increase awareness in the countries, in the countries by the stakeholders, by the governments, of the, let's say, weaknesses, strengths, vulnerabilities, and so on and so far, of the different countries. And I think that this is already something very important, because what we see is that the stakeholders use more and more the country reports in order to tell governments, we have this problem, you should do something. And I think this is already very positive. The second thing which I think is very positive is the fact that there is a very intense discussion over the cycle within the councils and the different committees in which every member state is sort of, let's say, scrutinized by the other member states. So the country reports are not simply published in Dublin, for Island, or in Paris, for France. The country reports are also seen by the other member states, so that all the member states become aware of the different weaknesses, of the different vulnerabilities, of the different strengths, of the different advancements in any member state. And therefore, on this basis, it is easier for them to understand and to discuss on the country-specific recommendations, because at a given moment, member states can say, well, why this country-specific recommendation has been there for five years? And nothing has changed, nothing has been done. So, and I think that this is part of the discussion. So perhaps we have not, let's say, solved the Junkers problem in the sense that how to be reelected, but in any case, it's clear that we are giving instruments, a lot of instruments, and when I say we, us, is the union, giving instruments to the member states, to the governments to put in place the right policies. Thank you. Okay. Good. Now, I understand that the cabinet meeting ran on a little, but it's ended, and the minister is on her way, but given the difficulties of getting into the building, I think we're going to jump onto our panelists now, before the minister arrives. She's expected in 10 minutes, it seems. So we go to Laura Bambrick first. Laura is social policy officer with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. She previously worked in policy advisory roles at the office that then thornished to Joan Burton in the office of the United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and the Social Justice Unit of the Society of Vincent DePaul. She has a PhD and MA in social policy from Oxford University. Laura. Thank you, Dan, and thank you to the Institute for the invitation to contribute today. As was mentioned, my name is Laura, and I'm a policy officer with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions. So Congress, to briefly remind people, is the largest civil society organization on the island. We represent the interests of some 700,000 plus workers in all sectors of the economy, and we're affiliated to the European Trade Union Confederation, which in turn represents some 45 million workers in all 28 member states. So to begin with a general point, at a European level, the trade union movement has repeatedly been calling on the EU to fully implement the 2017 European Pillar of Social Rights. Now, it's clear from this year's recommendation that the Commission is taking steps to move to a more social European semester, which we welcome, and we would hope that they will continue in this direction in future cycles, placing an even greater emphasis on decent wages, secure employment, further investment in the social infrastructure, such as child care, such as housing. And these are areas that are just not crucial to trade unions, but they are crucial to demonstrate the Commission's commitment to moving towards a more social Europe, especially in light of the Brexit vote. So turning to look at the recommendations for Ireland through the theme of today's event, futures jobs, investment and growth, I will keep my opening remarks to three recommendations, to address age sensitive spending, to invest in a low carbon transition, and to facilitate upskilling for vulnerable groups. So the country report and no doubt the minister will identify the risk population ageing poses to the long-term sustainability of the state pension. Ireland, like every other member state, is rapidly ageing. Fewer babies being born is coupled with a growth in the number of people over 65, and this ageing of our population presents considerable challenges to policymakers as revenue and expenditure are adversely affected. So we see a slowing down of the economy as we run out of workers. At the same time we see an increase in age sensitive expenditure, such as healthcare, such as elder care, such as pensions. They begin to increase. Now pensions are where the biggest increase in expenditure is going to happen. So to safeguard the sustainability of the public finances and the social insurance fund, it is government policy to make it more difficult to qualify for the contributory state pension and to increase the qualifying age for the state pension from 66 today to 68 by 2008. And this in a nutshell is government's state pension reform plan, which the commission is recommended be fully implemented. So Congress has grave concerns for those workers who are going to be unfit and financially compelled to continue working into their late 60s and beyond because of the state pension. Increases in pension age are happening in many countries, but Ireland is on course today to have the highest pension age by 2028. Yet we currently have the youngest population in the EU, second only to Luxembourg. It is the view of Congress that we are going too far too fast. Equally, government has no policy response to our falling fertility rate. Nor does the commission see this as a challenge to be addressed by any member state. We are addressing the long-term fiscal sustainability of our ageing population by wholly focusing on increases in life expectancy, but we're not addressing the fewer babies. So the decline in fertility rate can no longer be ignored by policy makers, both at home and in Brussels. The implication for our long-term fiscal sustainability is too great. So taking together the two recommendations to focus investment on a low carbon transition and to facilitate upskilling for vulnerable groups, Congress fully supports the commission's call for government to prioritise these two areas. Now, since the transition to a low carbon economy is going to have consequences for workers in these areas, particularly in energy and transport, we are calling for the establishment of a just transition fund, which will allow these workers to acquire the skills that will enable them to participate fully in this new industrial context. The same is true for workers that are at high risk of losing their job or facing significant changes in the tasks involved in their job because of advances in technology. We need to make investments to help workers transit to a low carbon and increasingly digital economy so that workers are not left behind. So to close with a quick observation, Congress is disappointed that the Ireland's recommendations do not reflect the country's report criticism of our weak system of social dialogue, whereas other countries have been asked to work on this. If Ireland is to address the challenges we face as a country in terms of productivity, pay, inequality, working conditions, government will have to move from the current consultative arrangements we have to have models of social dialogues that are more reflective of our now peer countries, the Denmark, Austria, the Germany of this world, in which social partners are more closely involved in policy making and have a proven capacity to deliver to balance socio-economic development. Good. Any thanks, Laura. I'm told the minister is in the building, but it may take another couple of minutes, so maybe we will go on to Martina Lollis, our second panelist. Martina is an associate research professor at the economic social research institute. She received a doctorate from Trinity College and previously worked as a researcher at the central bank of Ireland. Her research has focused primarily on firm level dynamics and decision making, covering a range of topics such as access to finance for SMEs, effects of taxation, exporting and more recently, the potential effects of Brexit on Ireland. Martina. Thank you very much, Dan. Thank you very much for having me here, everybody. I guess to make my comments on the recommendations and follow-on from Carlos's point, the overall recommendations made where you reflect the very strong economic recovery that Ireland has made and the shift in focus now from emerging from financial crisis to really setting up a path towards sustainable growth. And there's a great emphasis in the recommendations that sustainable means, both economic but also social and environmental. So my comments, I'm going to sort of echo what Carlos said in one particular area. And then on another area, talk a little bit about a recommendation that isn't here, but that I think is very important to that kind of forward looking path for economic development. Clearly I'm also a member of the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council, so we very much welcome the recommendation on achieving the meeting for a budgetary objective of the government, and that's one that we clearly endorse. We published our own fiscal assessment report just this morning, and that focused really quite considerably on the risks to Ireland's fiscal structure of the current concentration on corporation tax as a source of revenue. We've seen a very dramatic increase in corporate tax revenues as a share of total government funding. And also we know from the revenue commissioners that this is extremely concentrated. So about 45% of corporation tax revenues come from just 10 companies. So that really, I think exposes the country to a very significant risk of any exit, any change in both tax structures, but also just individual shocks to individual companies. And so that's something that we're quite concerned about. And obviously we're quite happy to collect tax revenue from from any multinational companies. And but we need to really take account of the fact that these revenues are very volatile and are very risky and be quite careful in terms of translating these potentially transitory revenues into permanent changes in government policy. And that's part of one of the recommendations there is to look at using these revenues for other purposes such as paying down tax. Our own proposal from the fiscal council this morning was to use this potential sort of windfall element of these revenues in a way that's slightly different in emphasis from the one in the council recommendations, but very much I guess in the same spirit. And that is to really propose that some of these above expectation revenues be reinforced into what we've turned a prudent account to build up fiscal buffers. We've talked a lot about the potential risks to the economy in particular, the potentially very large negative impact that a no deal Brexit could bring. So it's quite important that the government should have some fiscal kind of buffers in place there and perhaps focus on building those up first with the windfalls continue to shift the focus towards paying down paying down debt. Then on the other two recommendations and my comment here really bridges the two recommendations. There's a recommendation on education and labor force participation and a recommendation on SME productivity and the future path of the economy there. But one thing that's missing from both of those recommendations is any discussion of investment in third level education. And over the past decade, while the economy has recovered very rapidly, the reduction in funding of the third level sector is now almost half on a per student basis than it was in 2008. So the economy has recovered investment has recovered in many areas of the economy. Investment in the third level sector has really lagged behind. And we've seen that having an impact in terms of the ranking of Irish universities in the international in the international system pretty much all of the Irish universities have been losing losing ground slightly. And while that's not the immediate financial threat that Brexit or the housing crisis has in terms of the long term structure and objectives of the Irish economy to be a high skilled economy with good quality jobs, whether those are from highly productive domestic firms or from continuing to attract multinational, like world's leading multinationals over the very long term, reduction in funding for the third level sector is really going to erode that element of our economic model. So I think that's quite important in terms of sort of a factor that feeds into all of the recommendations, but isn't really explicit there in how they're currently structured. Maybe want to be hopefully taken into account of in the future. Great. Thank you. And let me forgive me for not mentioning your role, your membership of the fiscal advisory council. I'm sure we all many of us woke up this morning to radio discussions of the said same council. So thank you for your contribution. And now let me introduce our second keynote speaker, Minister Regina Daherty, the Minister for Employment and Social Protection, needs little introduction minister. Thank you very much, Chair. Dan and to Jill O'Donohoe for the invitation for me to speak here today at the country's specific recommendations conference, which you've organised with the European Commission to thank Jerry Kiley too. Before I begin, I suppose I'd like to just commend the Institute for the work that they do because the complexities and the details of our EU institutions can sometimes be somewhat distant to the average Irish person. Sometimes we think what happens over there doesn't really affect us. But the work I think that the Institute has carried out through its research and indeed events like this and others beforehand genuinely generates greater engagement with the EU institutions of what they actually do to really have a positive impact as opposed to sometimes the political negative impacts that our politicised from the EU institutions. So I'd like to take the opportunity today to really warmly congratulate your director-general Barry Anders, not sure if he's here, but on his recent election to the European institution. He's going to take up a seat in the European Parliament hopefully later on this year and I know he'd be a very good company with our own five members who were recently elected. But I think we've had a very good European election and I think the Irish people have responded very positively and maybe have felt closer to the institutions because of the solidarity that we've enjoyed over the last 100 years and hopefully will continue to enjoy that solidarity in the coming months. But I want to just wish him every success in his future career. I think in fairness the last few months have genuinely shown and demonstrated to the Irish people what solidarity looks like and the power of relationships but also the power of the institution in itself because our European partners have genuinely been steadfast I think in their improvement of the approach that we've taken to the negotiations with Brexit but also being square rock solid behind us. So I'd like to wish you all a good conference today. I think the topic is relatively specific to where we are in the budgetary cycle given that we're now moving into a new cycle within the European Union. So the team of this year's conference is future jobs and growth in Ireland and indeed in Europe and I think that's the heart or it should be at the heart of all of us policy makers here in Ireland and across the European Union should be mindful of given the previous 10 years that we've just left behind us. I think the European 2020 strategy across the European Union's key agendas for growth and jobs over the last decade has been for front and foremost. I think it emphasises the importance of smart, sustainable but inclusive growth to drive the Europe's competitiveness and its productivity and I think it underpins the value of a social market economy and it's something that has been stressed very, very prominently in the last European semester how much a social Europe has to be brought to the fore that an economy and a functioning and a vibrant economy is absolutely great but only when it delivers on its social responsibilities. So I think across the Union we face challenges that are presented by issues such as the changing international trading environment, the world of work is changing right before our very eyes. Technological changes and its impacts on the changes of the labour markets in how we conduct business right across the world and probably the most important thing is the pace at which those changes are taking place and they are creating the potential for opportunities but there are also issues that are arising from it that sometimes political systems and legitimate systems work at a much, much slower rate and I think we need to up our game to recognise that if we don't keep pace with those changing technologies and the new world of work we're going to be in trouble. I think demographic changes are also having significant impacts across many areas of government activity and whether that's to be the expenditure demands for the likes of health and social care services for older people, for argument sake for the need to increase expenditure on pension provision in my own department and we all know that the SIF is going to run into funding difficulties assuming we do nothing else in the next number of years but also we need to provide support for people who need to save for their future requirements and also against what historically have been the normal backdrop political issues that we look at during budget cycles we have the impact of climate change and the really, really significant challenges that they're going to pose to every country in the European Union and across obviously internationally. So further to these challenges I suppose which are common to all of the governments across the EU we have to focus on smart growth. So we need to develop an economy that's based on knowledge. We need to look at sustainable growth and so that we need to promote I suppose a more resource efficient and greener competitive economy and we need to absolutely ensure that our growth is inclusive. So we foster a high employment economy which thankfully we've managed to do over the last number of years but also making sure that that job creation ensures social cohesion for every single citizen in Ireland. I think furthermore in Ireland we need to focus our mindset on improving productivity of the domestically owned small and medium sized enterprises that are the backbone of employment in this country. Lots of lots of focus you hear particularly on the media announcements is that there was a thousand jobs created here and 400 jobs created there and they're all from foreign direct investments which are enormously welcome and we wouldn't be able to manage without them. But the backbone of business is unemployment across every single small town small rural village you know every single place in county in Ireland relies on the small and medium sized enterprise and I think we need to really concentrate our energies on that. I think a growing demand for labour and particularly specific skill sets are going to compete with structural constraints in the labour market and I think in certain sectors we can already see that IT is one design and is another and over the coming years I think we need to make sure that our citizens are equipped with the right skill set, the right training opportunities, the right internships and work experience programs to allow them to adapt quickly to that changing world. I think we must ensure that our policies are in it of it, that they're well rounded and most of all from me inclusive because a flexible labour market with an increased participation across all sections of society I think is what's going to be key to ensuring that we build a resilient responsive economy. We have to invest in new economy, economies that prioritise the creation of quality sustainable jobs, albeit in that new world that we call collectively the gig economy or the platform economy, that people I suppose expect will have more precariousness in it. I think the challenge for government and this government and any government that comes thereafter is to make sure that the employment rights that are enjoyed by people in what we classify as traditional employment settings are enjoyed by people in this new world, this new platform. So the future jobs of Ireland that was launched by my colleague Heather Humphries, I think it's an ambition strategy that places really strong focus on increasing productivity and boosting participation rates so that we can all take advantage of the technological changes and embed them in every part of not only our economy but our society. And I think it sets out a range of initiatives to identify sectors that are most at risk from the changes but also identify upskilling opportunities for people who are in work and where they could move to in the period of five, ten years hence. But also making sure that really conscious at the back of our minds and in all of the decisions that we make that we're moving towards a low carbon digital economy. Now my department is going to play a vital role in delivering a range of ambitions in this area by improving the career guidance that we give and the supports to include the provisions, advice and upskilling and not just to the live register which is the people that we would have historically always looked at because those were the people who were presenting looking for jobs. But I think we need to expand and open it up to the people who are in jobs who maybe are either under employed or are in sections of this society and economy that are at risk to make sure that we provide them with the upskilling opportunity to be able to be ready to move to new jobs when they present themselves. So the EU Commission through its EU semester process does play a vital and a key role I think in identifying the challenges that each individual country has because we don't as we go to European Council meetings we do share challenges. There are some very specific issues that would relate to Ireland that wouldn't relate to Portugal or Bulgaria or some of our eastern colleagues and each member state in keeping a momentum to address these challenges is given key tasks by each or to each government to make sure that we address them. And I think all the more so when we need to make our economies more resilient we need to be mindful of the challenges and the suggestions that come from our academics and our colleagues in the European Commission as to what we could do and how we should go about addressing the country's specific recommendations for each of our countries. The commission's focus through the semester the country's specific recommendation process closely mirrors the challenges that I've just outlined that we are experiencing in Ireland for more skilled labour participation preparing for demographic changes dealing with the impact of climate change making local economies and European economies more resilient in the face of what will be trading in a geo-economic and geopolitical challenge and climate that does affect probably all of our European landscape. And one of the most outstanding successes I think of the outgoing commission under the stewardship of Monsea Juncker and his colleagues obviously have all of the commission and I wish them all well for those of the who will not be returning to the next commission. I think has been the challenge initially but actually I think the success of achieving what we can all see now is a fairer Europe than what we would have had five years ago and absolutely to what we would have had 10 or 15 years ago. And I think that building of a fairer Europe one that's more sustainable and more inclusive and very much more conscious of the social delivery that any recovering economy has to give I think that challenge is something that we need to bring into the next commission and I know commissioner Tyson who is probably retiring this year is exceptionally ambitious that whoever takes over from her will continue the advent of social Europe to have this semester coming forward very much in our minds that the economy is only as good as what you use the money to do to improve people's lives and I think we've gone so far in the last five years to improve employment rights to improve work-life balance. There is so much more we're only scratching at the edges. There's so much more that we need to do and I think a really strong focus on the social economy and the social delivery has to continue into this particular five-year semester. I suppose key to meeting the challenge of a more socially inclusive Europe is ensuring that governments base our decisions firstly on what is good for sustainable growth in your own economy on how you will best create jobs with people with the sharp focus on training, advancement, reskilling, up-skilling, lifelong learning. I think to make sure that the people who are already working as well as the people who are not working can avail of the opportunities that are going to present themselves whilst at the back of all of that making sure that our public finances remain in a sound state to be able to continue that progression that we've enjoyed in the last number of years and I think to be fair I think we've achieved a lot of that in Ireland in recent years and I think that's evidence for maybe a lot of the economic data that has been presented and that would be followed closely by yourselves that's released on a quarterly basis. We genuinely have emerged from a recession at a much faster rate than I think anybody would have expected. However, good economic data has to genuinely translate into meaningful outcomes not just for the people who are working but for all of our people. And I think the country-specific recommendations are designed to give guidance to member states as to how to achieve that depending on where your level of employment, unemployment, social inclusion, deprivation index are. And I think, as you know, over many successive quarters in Ireland, employment has grown to the really wonderful levels that it's at today. We have an unemployment rate of just under 4.4%. I think if anybody had said that to us five years ago, we probably would have told them that you were mad. It's wonderful that the recovery that we've been experiencing in this country the last number of years has been a jobs-led recovery as opposed to an export-led recovery that we would have seen during many recession recoveries previously. And I think that's why the future strategy for jobs in this country needs to work very, very closely with our department's interior services. And we make sure that we have a focus on the lower-than-average performance employment, employable people historically, but people who absolutely want to participate in employment. And I think we're moving towards recognizing that there are people who have different abilities to people who are on the library who absolutely want to contribute. And I think we need to extend our services, both interior and educational, I'm wrecking the place up here, and educational offering to those people to make them, give them the best opportunity that we can. We've touched on some pilot schemes over the last number of years with employability and our new Ability Program. But I think that needs to be much, much wider. People with disabilities want to participate in this country. And we need to take away the nervousness of some of the supports that we have for them while offering all of the advances of training and education and empowerment and mentorship to be able to help them to move into the workforce. We also have intergenerational jobless households. We need a specific package of supports and measures to help those people move away from intergenerational unemployment into the workforce. And recognize that it isn't as easy as just saying there's jobs down in the interior center go down and get one. We have to be conscious of the fact that different people need different level of support. We have people with different levels of mental health across the spectrum that we would have never imagined 20 or 30 years ago. And so therefore, the supports that we had here before weren't recognizing of the different challenges, stresses, and anxieties that people have today. So that's why we're working across government, the Department of Business and Enterprise, our department, the Department of Health, the Department of Disabilities to make sure that we have a cohesive plan across all of government to allow everybody who wants to work to be able to avail of the opportunities in the new world that are going to present themselves. But also recognizing that the fruits of that economy that's delivering off all of the back of the thousands of new jobs that are created deliver social cohesion and a reduction in deprivation to have a meaningful impact across every single citizen in Ireland. So I want just before I finish to briefly conclude that I totally agree with the commission's recommendations which we share of promoting what they're calling a virtuous triangle of number one boosting investment. I don't think anybody could argue that that's something that we definitely wanted to. Number two, pursuing effective reforms that foster sustainable growth and inclusive growth and having sound fiscal policies. From my perspective as minister for employment affairs and social protection and I think it's a lovely balance since we've moved employment affairs and employment rights into the department. The proposed CSRs genuinely give us a major focus this year on facilitating investment. And it's not just investment in infrastructure or business or industry. From our perspective the investment has to be in our people. Not just the people who are not working but the people who are going to have different careers every five every 10 years for the rest of their lives to make sure that we can facilitate that training those opportunities to be able to move seamlessly but also then against the backdrop of our I think very ambitious pension reforms program that we have to ensure that by the time they do reach pensionable age when they are 66 or 67 and that will be in the number of years that they have sustainable pension from a state perspective but also supplemented pension savings from hopefully our new automatic enrollment system that we'll announce and commence in the next couple of years. But it's a challenging and really really exciting time ahead and I'm looking forward to working with the next commission. Please go out for the next five years to deliver real social cohesion across Europe. Real responsible delivery of services that ensures every man citizen and child every man woman and child that the citizen of the European Union enjoys the prosperity that Ireland and our European colleagues are enjoying today. Have a good day. Thank you.