 Ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the RDS for this day-long conference on the economic and financial crisis. The focus of the conference is to look at ways in which we can exit the crisis, not only here in Ireland, of course, but also in the rest of Europe. You don't need me to tell you that this conference is taking place at a particularly difficult time for Ireland and for the European Union. We have been organising a series of meetings throughout the country to provide information about the crisis itself and the work being done to emerge from it. We also try to provide fora in which discussions and debate can be encouraged and questions can be asked and hopefully answered. In the autumn of last year, we launched a series of public seminars throughout the country and brought a more limited version of today's event to Sligo, Waterford, Limerick and Atlone. The success of these seminars pointed to a big public hunger for more information and to be better able to understand what was going on and we've decided to continue with these regional seminars but also this is sort of the crowning moment of all of these seminars, our biggest event here that's taking place in Dublin today. I'm delighted that we have such a distinguished line-up of speakers, our keynote speakers Patrick Honohan, Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland, Alain Lamassour, MEP who is chair of the European Parliament's Budget Committee. I'd also like to draw your attention to the fact that each part of the programme will be followed by a question and answer session which will give you the opportunity to engage with the panels of speakers so it's meant to be as interactive as possible today. Now as you know the 27 heads of state and government are continuing their summit meeting today in Brussels to discuss the very theme of this conference and the good news is that you have probably seen that it was agreed overnight that the Eurogroup will examine the situation of the Irish financial sector with a view to further improving the sustainability of Ireland's EU IMF programme. This agreement as part of a move to break the vicious cycle between banks and sovereigns is clearly a welcome development and one which I look forward to hearing your reactions today. Indeed the summit, there weren't very high expectations for this summit but we have all been proved wrong on this count because it seems that there have been some great breakthroughs made, it is amazing what happens at four o'clock in the morning. We also have today the former president of the European Parliament Pat Cox who has agreed to be rapporteur and will have the unenviable task of trying to bring together the solutions and ideas from the conference and provide a summary of the proceedings this afternoon so good luck with that Pat because it's a hard task. If I could just say a word about the context that we're working in at the moment and turn to developments over the last couple of years at EU level to provide a sort of a background for today's discussions. We are facing a range of interlinked challenges. These include a sovereign debt and banking crisis, major adjustments to bring public finances under control and of course dealing with the social impact of all of that. In recent months attention has also been focused on the need to boost growth and rebuild confidence but we are not starting from a bank page. There have been major efforts over the past years to improve economic coordination across the EU and these are continuing at the summit in Brussels today. At the end of May the Commission published its country specific recommendations for each member state and these include specific targets in the context of public finances and structural reforms that will lay the basis for sustained return to growth across all EU member states. These recommendations which have caused controversy in some member states are due to be endorsed at today's meeting of the European Council. Given that Ireland is in an EU IMF financial program Ireland's recommendation was quite straightforward although challenging which was to implement its EU IMF program. So Ireland is familiar with dealing with such recommendations if you like from its program but other countries now all the other member states also have these country specific recommendations and country to what many believe the financial program for Ireland is not just about fixing the financial sector or the banks but also contains a set of recommendations and targets for structural reform to boost competitiveness and growth. Also exiting the program is not only a priority for Ireland but it's also a priority for the Troika too. We all share the goal of Ireland exiting the program. In addition to improved economic governance there have been a number of developments which will continue to contribute to and which will contribute to enhancing the stability of the European Union and the Eurozone in particular. So there have been a number of key decisions taken to try to strengthen the Eurozone and we shouldn't forget that all of this has been going on in the background. This includes for example strengthening the original stability and growth pact via what is often referred to as the six pack of legislation. The additional two pack of legislation proposed in November last year which focuses on improving fiscal and financial surveillance. The fiscal treaty which of course required a referendum in Ireland and has been ratified now and the treaty establishing the European stability mechanism which will be a permanent funding mechanism for countries in difficulty. So in summary there have been enormous strides made to strengthen the financial regulation and supervision and the banking sector is being recapitalised and in some cases restructured and this has all happened at lightning speed in EU terms. It may not seem like that to people but when you need 27 countries in many cases to decide things it has actually taken place at a very very fast speed. However while it is clear that much has been achieved there is still huge instability in the Eurozone. President Barroso said yesterday that this crisis is the biggest threat to all that we have achieved through European construction over the last 60 years. Faced with this dark reality standing still is not an option, a big leap forward is now needed. So what next, well the European summit agreed already yesterday an important element of the way forward. The mobilisation of around 120 billion euro for immediate growth measures. Part of this includes a 10 billion increase in the capital of the European investment bank which will increase the bank's overall lending capacity by 60 billion and Ireland of course stands to benefit from this. As part of this growth agenda there will also be work to complete the single market, tackle unemployment and in particular youth unemployment and promote trade and investment. The Commission considers that for genuine economic and monetary union to be established we need a banking union, a fiscal union, economic union and further steps towards a political union. This process should be progressive and start with steps that can be taken immediately without treaty change as would be the case with the banking union. The news from Brussels last night is that there has been significant progress on this by the heads of state and government who have agreed on the road ahead for deepening the EMU. It is clear that in order to share economic risks strong and integrated supervision of the banking sector is required. This would entail a single rule book, integrated financial supervision, a common resolution authority and a single deposit insurance scheme as part of an overall framework intended for 27 member states so not just the Eurozone countries. President Barroso has made it clear that any move in this direction must also include a genuine political process to give democratic legitimacy and accountability to further moves in economic integration. I wish people would seem to support a move in this direction. The results of an autumn 2011 Euro barometer poll showed that 78% of Irish respondents were in favour of European economic and monetary union with the Euro as its currency. This is well above the EU average for that poll which was only 53%. 87% of those asked, of Irish respondents asked, believed that the EU member states should work together to find a solution to the economic and financial crisis. So moving beyond the crisis, in parallel to all of these developments we should not lose sight of the fact that despite the urgency of the economic and financial crisis and the way in which it has hijacked if you like almost completely hijacked the EU agenda, the Commission and the other EU institutions continue to work in areas such as energy, research, education, transport, infrastructure, climate change, etc. to try to further improve the lives of the 500 million EU citizens. Negotiations are underway to approve the EU's budget or multi-annual framework for the period 2014 to 2020. This budget will be an important driver for growth and of course will be important across all EU policy areas including the common agricultural policy, the EU structural funds, research and innovation. And we can look forward to hearing from Mr. Lamasseur who is the chair of the EP Committee on Budgets who will play a key role in this process. We look forward to what he has to say about this later this morning. So in conclusion, today we have an opportunity to hear from a range of distinguished speakers and I would like to thank them for agreeing to share their thoughts about the ever-changing economic context. I would also like to thank the Institute of International and European Affairs and particularly Dahio Kelly and Jill Donohue who organized today's conference and the Royal Dublin Society for use of this wonderful venue. And I would like to thank you of course for coming today. I look forward to hearing your ideas on exiting the crisis and I will be reporting them back to Brussels.