 Thank you very much, Chairperson. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for giving me the opportunity to say these few words to you this morning and my appreciation to the IAEA and TEPSA for organising this event. As you know, it's Ireland's seventh time to manage the EU presidency and it happens to coincide with the 40th anniversary of our accession to the Union and I hope for those reasons it's a propitious occasion. As I said this day last week to the European ambassadors, we look forward having supported the achievements of our colleagues from Cyprus. We look forward to hosting an active and fruitful engagement across a range of dossiers during the Irish presidency before then handing on the baton to our colleagues from Lithuania. Before I turn to the specifics of Ireland's presidency priorities, I would like to endorse what my colleague, the Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan said earlier today in relation to Ireland's continuing economic reforms, which is not to say that a very challenging road does not still lie ahead. However, recent decisions taken at the European Council do demonstrate a shift in focus from managing the financial crisis to economic recovery, from managing the financial crisis to economic recovery jobs and growth. The Council has highlighted the importance of removing the remaining barriers to the single market, especially in the areas averted to by the chairperson and respective digital and network industries. A fully functioning single market is essential for the creation of that jobs and growth focus. So, notwithstanding the banking and euro crisis, the single market has delivered many benefits to both business and consumers across the EU for the past 20 years and the presidency will work to make progress on the proposals that remain outstanding under the single market act. In addition, we look forward to the challenge of instigating work in the relevant working parties on the new single market two measures which Commissioner Barnier announced in October. The digital market and the internal energy market are of course an integral part of the single market. Ireland will prioritise measures best able to support sustainable economic recovery and growth and to create jobs. These measures will be directed towards the growth areas of the economy, particularly the research development and innovation sector which have the potential to grow rapidly over the coming decade and to deliver the jobs of the future. We will place a strong emphasis on working with the EU institutions and our fellow member states to achieve these important common goals. Turning to specific issues, a competitive European economy needs a robust infrastructure. To develop a globally competitive economy in the coming decades, the EU needs to invest in its infrastructure today. Over the course of Ireland's presidency and indeed as a non-going national priority, Ireland will continue to work towards ensuring that investment in key economic infrastructure is accelerated and progressed. At a European level, the Connecting Europe facility will be a key driver of private and public sector investment in transport, energy and communication networks. The Connecting Europe facility focuses on issues such as high speed broadband and on the facilitation and integration of renewable energy, these are key drivers in Europe's future economic development. The sectoral regulations will play a defining role in delivering the SEF and are a key legislative priority for our presidency. Ireland strongly supports the initiative behind the Connecting Europe facility and will endeavour to ensure the mechanism can work as flexibly as possible. We aim to achieve agreement between the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament on the Connecting Europe facility during our presidency. Ireland has been successful in attracting many of the world's leading technology and digital media companies. The investments made by these companies represent a vote of confidence in Ireland's future and in Ireland's ability to provide an economic environment that is conducive to growth in this sector. The digital revolution is transforming the ways in which we interact as a society, bringing benefits to citizens and business. Advancing the digital economy will be a key priority of our presidency. This will be achieved by progressing dossiers on e-signatures, cyber security, cost reduction measures associated with high-speed broadband roll-out, intellectual property rights and data protection to name but a few. The Commission will shortly publish its mid-term review of the digital agenda for Europe. It's expected that the review will emphasise the need to redouble our efforts on the digital agenda. This will form a key backdrop to Ireland's presidency and we expect to debate these findings at the June Council. The digital agenda assembly will be held in Dublin in June next year. It will facilitate the sharing of best practice examples as to how Member States are implementing and benefitting from the goals set in the digital agenda. The proposed regulation on e-signatures is a deliverable for the digital agenda and the single market generally. A properly functioning EU digital market is dependent on consumers and businesses being confident that they can make secure, simple and inexpensive online transactions. The Commission's proposal aspires to make cross-border transactions seamless and trustworthy through the use of e-signature, e-identification and trust services. This is a challenging task, but the prize is a significant one. Advancing this dossier is therefore a priority of our presidency. I understand that there are a number of issues that may need to be resolved within Council in order to deliver an acceptable consensus. I don't mean to glide over the complexity and the diversity of approaches taken by Member States. I have met with colleagues in the European Parliament over the last number of months and despite the challenges that I have just referred to, I am confident that we can make good progress on this dossier. A key element of the digital agenda is the need to ensure that the digital economy is underpinned by the necessary infrastructure and services. Ireland, along with other Member States, views the rapid rollout of high-speed broadband networks as an essential requirement and will action points that can contribute to that agenda as priorities. It is the foundation upon which Europe's digital market will be built. There are differing views as to how best to achieve the necessary investment in infrastructure, including both supply and demand side measures. The market forces most likely to invest in areas of population density where a clear return on investment can be foreseen. Consequently, many of the less well populated areas may not benefit, will not benefit, I would say, from private investment. This leaves governments with the challenge of ensuring that access to high-speed services for businesses and citizens living in these areas. In either scenario, it is imperative that we do all we can to reduce the capital cost of deploying these networks. We look forward to seeing the Commission's proposals in this regard. Our recently published national broadband plan aims to achieve the digital agenda for Europe's 2020 targets ahead of schedule. By 2015, we will have speeds of between 70 and 100 megabits delivered by the commercial sector to more than half of the population. We are aiming for a minimum of 30 to 40 megabits in those areas that the commercial sector may not serve. The plan was developed following lengthy engagement with the sector and a public consultation process. Ireland's experience in preparing the national broadband plan will allow us to take a strong lead on this particular dossier as it progresses through our presidency. Another dossier to be progressed during our time in the chair is a communique on cloud computing. While cloud computing is still at a comparatively early stage, Europe has an opportunity to ensure that it is at the forefront of developments in this area. The communication brought forward by the Commission recommends developing a climate of certainty and trust to stimulate the active adoption of cloud computing in Europe. Europe is also critically aware of the importance of a robust cybersecurity strategy. In order to realise the goals of a fully functioning digital market, and indeed a wider digital society, citizens and businesses must have confidence that the systems they are using are safe and secure. The Commission will shortly bring forward a communication on a European cybersecurity strategy, along with a regulation on computer emergency response teams' coordination. My department will take the lead on both of these dossiers, working with colleagues across government. A Friends of the Presidency group is being established to progress the European strategy and will be chaired by Ireland during our presidency. There are also dossiers arising which are not within my remit, but which are essential to progressing the digital single market. These relate, in particular, to data protection and to copyright. Ireland supports the overall objectives of the proposed regulation on data protection to encourage user confidence. We believe that the regulation should be workable in practice, and that additional safeguards should be commensurate with the risk of misuse of personal data. We will support the advancement of the data protection proposal during the Irish presidency by our colleagues in the Justice and Home Affairs Council. In the absence of a single market governing intellectual property rights in the area of copyright, cross-border e-commerce also faces challenges. These include the existence of a myriad of national regimes that hinder the opportunities for trading in a single market. Our colleagues on the Competitiveness Council will be looking in some greater detail at issues within the family of intellectual property rights, including progressing discussion on the Directive and Collective Rights Management. In addition, we expect that during our presidency we expect to open up discussion on the anticipated Commission Communication on Copyright. This communication will be a follow-up to the 2012 Commission Green paper on the online distribution of audiovisio works in the EU. It will deal with the opportunities and challenges posed by the digital single market. Turning now briefly to the energy dossier, we are all aware that a strong, safe, secure and sustainable energy supply is also required to power Europe's future social and economic development and that the internal market for energy is also central in that regard. Green and sustainable energy means that we must focus on sustainable energy production and consumption to safeguard Europe's environment for future generations and that we must ensure competitiveness and security of supply. As President, we will make this issue and in particular advancing the energy internal market a priority. It is proposed that the Commission's communication on the internal energy market will be the subject of discussion at the Energy Council in February 2013. It may also be considered as part of the European Council's deliberations in May. Again, this is a vitally important policy imperative as part of our goals for the wider single market. Insofar as legislative dossiers are concerned, a number of important files are expected to be progressed to an advanced stage by the Cypriot presidency. Negotiations on the safety of offshore drilling and the energy infrastructure regulation will be completed before the end of 2012 or if not during the Irish presidency. The Commission has recently published a draft directive on indirect land use change and the use of biofuels and bioliquids. This proposal is important to ensure the long term sustainable development and use of biofuels without interfering with global food production. This objective is to be achieved by reducing the use of food based biofuels to meet the 10% renewable energy target of the renewable energy directive. The estimated global land conversion impacts indirect land use change will be considered when assessing the greenhouse gas performance of biofuels for the first time. The draft directive spans the work of my department and the Department of the Environment and an ad hoc working group of the Energy and Environment Formations of the Council chaired by Energy will progress this dossier with the objective of producing a progress report for the June next year energy council. Allied to the sustainability concerns relating to liquid biofuels is the need to address sustainability of biomass generally. During the Irish presidency the Commission is expected to publish a proposed directive on sustainability criteria for biomass. Ireland will actively progress the discussion on this dossier along with discussions aimed at more sustainable production of liquid biofuels. Clearly European energy policy aims to create a low carbon economy that is the objective which will deliver benefits in terms of growth, innovation, competitiveness, job creation, energy security and environmental quality. This is precisely why renewable energy will play a key role in shaping our combined energy future, decarbonising our electricity generation over the coming years. It will use natural resources located within our own European borders and reduce European dependence on an increasingly expensive volatile priced and largely imported fossil fuel supply. In support of renewable energy the Irish presidency will facilitate presentation by the Commission and discussion of its guidance papers on support schemes and cooperation mechanisms in the second half of the presidency. The adoption of the energy efficiency directive is a milestone on the road to meeting our 2020 obligations and undoubtedly energy management systems will play a key role in the future implementation of the directive. The directive intends to help citizens, public authorities and industry to better manage their energy consumption which should also lead to a reduction in primary energy usage. I am confident that the directive will prove to be a critical enabler to realising the energy efficiency opportunity that exists across the economy. Our core objective is to deliver a major increase in the pace, scale and depth of investment in upgrading existing facilities and to assist Ireland in meeting its 20% renewable and energy efficiency targets set by the European Union for 2020. We can reduce our energy import dependency significantly by increasing our use of renewable energy resources. By working to secure access to bigger markets we can develop projects of scale that offer us the potential to develop a manufacturing and service space here in Ireland and by increasing our use of energy efficiency measures we can reduce our exposure to high energy costs. My officials, my colleagues in the department have been working intensively on a proposal to establish an energy efficiency fund to kick start the type of investment necessary to support the clear opportunity that exists in the public and commercial sectors. While the details are still to be finalised, the idea is that we would put in place a mechanism to allow competitive proposals for energy efficiency projects to be financed. Overcoming this hardly is the single greatest barrier to economic activity at present. We know there is a pipeline of exciting and innovative projects out there and we just need to unlock these barriers and in so doing we know that there is considerable job potential. We want to prove the concept at scale utilising about 20 pilot projects next year. It's not without risk and there will undoubtedly be obstacles along the way but the real objective is to create the environment and structures that will allow us to attract investors to create a far bigger fund, one that will be big enough to realise the multi-billion euro worth of economic activity that we know is out there. The communication on smart grids sets policy directions to drive forward the deployment of future European electricity networks. Bringing together the latest progress and information on communication technologies and network development will allow electricity to flow exactly where and when it is needed at cheapest cost. Smart grids will enable consumers to follow their electricity consumption in real time, saving energy and money. Estimates show that smart electricity grids should reduce CO2 emissions in the EU by some 9% and the annual household energy consumption by 10%. It's also expected that there will be commissioned communications on new energy technologies and carbon capture and storage and that these are likely to be published towards the end of the Irish presidency. New technologies need to be supported through investment in research development and innovation to ensure the long term sustainability of the energy sector. The appropriate time and fora will be provided for discussion and examination of these communications. Also it's significant that the European heads of state and government will discuss energy during a special sectoral European council at the end of May. This is a clear indication of the importance of energy across all sectors of the economy. Before I conclude, Chairperson, may I mention very briefly a number of presidency events in my remit that will be held in Dublin next year. There will be an informal energy ministerial in April. There will be the Strategic Energy Technologies Conference in May. There will be the annual digital assembly, probably the largest event during the Irish presidency and that will be in June and it is the first time that it will be held outside of Brussels. So as you can see, we will have a very challenging and busy presidency that would sometimes cause you to pull the duvet over your head and stay there. It is very challenging, progressing a number of key dossiers that will play an important role in the completion of the single market. Energy and telecommunications are a critical part of the single market and delivering in these areas will bring benefit to European citizens, business and society generally. So we look forward to working with a wide range of stakeholders in delivering on this ambitious agenda so that all that remains for me is to thank you for giving me this opportunity to make these two opening remarks. Thank you.