Managing Crisis: Lessons Learned
Channel: IIEA
Date: 06/04/2020

Governments around the world are working fast to react to the unprecedented challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, with the most urgent focus being the evolving public health situation. In order to slow the spread of the virus, restrictive physical distancing measures have been imposed by most governments on non-essential workers. The economic implications of this crisis have already led to surges in unemployment, emergency spending rises and large declines in tax intakes. To discuss these economic challenges, responses and future implications, the IIEA gathers some of the central figures involved in the response to Ireland’s 2008 economic crisis to share their insights.

About the Speakers:

Ajai Chopra worked at the International Monetary Fund from 1984 to 2014. His final position at the IMF was Deputy Director of its European Department where he was, among other things, responsible for the design and implementation of Ireland’s monetary rescue programme (2010-2013). He’s currently an independent consultant based in Washington DC and he served as a Visiting Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics from 2014 to 2016.

Patrick Honohan was Governor of the Central Bank of Ireland and a member of the Governing Council of the ECB from 2009 to 2015. He is an honorary professor of economics at Trinity College Dublin and a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. His most recent book, Currency, Credit and Crisis provides an account of the financial crisis in Ireland.

John Moran served as Secretary General of the Department of Finance from 2011 to 2014, helping guide Ireland’s post-crisis economic recovery. He previously served as Head of Wholesale Bank Supervision at the Central Bank of Ireland from 2010-2011. Before entering the public sector, he served as CEO of Zurich Bank from 1997 to 2005. He was recently appointed Chair of Ireland’s Land Development Agency.

Mary O’Dea has been Chief Executive of the Institute of Banking since April 2018. Prior to that she was Director of Securities and Markets Supervision at the Central Bank of Ireland. She was previously Ireland’s representative at the World Bank and prior to that held the role of Alternate Executive Director representing Ireland with the IMF from 2011 to 2014. She also served as Acting Director of Ireland’s Financial Regulator in 2009 and prior to that held a series of senior positions at the Central Bank.

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