channels. design times have fallen dramatically as computer modeling has eliminated the need, for example, of the large staff of architectural specification drafters previously required for building projects. medical diagnoses are more thorough, accurate, and far faster, with access to heretofore unavailable information. treatment is accordingly hastened, and hours of procedures eliminated. in addition, the dramatic advances in biotechnology are significantly increasing a broad range of productivity - expanding efforts in areas from agriculture to medicine. the evident acceleration of the process of “ creative destruction ”, which has accompanied these expanding opportunities and which has been reflected in the shifting of capital from failing technologies into those technologies at the cutting edge, has been remarkable. owing to advancing information capabilities and the resulting emergence of more accurate price signals and less costly price discovery, market participants have been able to detect and to respond to finely calibrated nuances in consumer demand. the process of capital reallocation has been assisted through a significant unbundling of risks made possible by the development of innovative financial products, not previously available. the proliferation of products of all different designs and qualities has opened up the potential for the satisfaction of consumer needs not evident even twenty years ago. the accompanying expansion of wealth has been large, though regrettably the gains are not as widely spread across households as i would like. thus, in summary, the technological innovation observed in recent years does not appear to be a story of pure economic endogeniety. the aforementioned technologies appear largely sui generis to the post world war ii period, indeed to the last twenty years. they were unanticipated, and evolved, for the most part, independent of the ebbs and flows of economic activity. while the amount of capital investment that has carried these technologies into use has been, of course, affected by the costs of capital and labor, and by consumer demand, the rates of return offered by this new equipment have been largely rooted in the relative state of technology. it is the observation that there has been a perceptible quickening in the pace at which technological innovations are applied that argues for the hypothesis that the recent acceleration in labor productivity is not just a cyclical phenomenon or a statistical aberration, but reflects — at least in part — more deep - seated, still developing, shift in our economic landscape. indeed it remains a hypothesis, since in economics, unlike in the physical sciences, we can never conduct fully controlled experiments for an overall economy. the evidence, nonetheless

. to this end, central banks are also investing to improve the speed of these systems. for instance, the european central bank recently launched its new market infrastructure service – tips ( target instant payment settlement ) – to enable payment service providers to offer fund transfers to their customers in real time on a 24 – 7 - 365 basis. tips is an extension of the target2 rtgs provided by the eurosystem and is based on the sepa instant credit transfer scheme, which is expected to be used by many payment service providers to offer pan - european instant payments. the digital revolution also extends to the work of central bankers and financial regulators. for instance, as with many other disciplines, central banking and financial regulation can benefit from the data analytics revolution. each day, we receive high volumes of numerical data and documentation from regulated firms and other entities that are required to submit information to us, together with a tsunami of data on market prices and transactions. new analytical methods that can draw insights from these data goldmines promise to improve the identification and mitigation of risks to the financial system and enhance the efficiency of our policy interventions. this potential explains why we have been investing in developing our in - house analytics expertise over recent years. given the symbiosis between our in - house work and the data analytics community in the university system, we see the value in fostering a broader range of research in analytical subjects. for instance, the central bank of ireland is pleased to participate as an industry partner in the new science foundation ireland centre for research training in foundations of data science. in addition, i am pleased to announce that we plan to launch a new programme of doctoral scholarships in data analytics, which will support students in irish universities that wish to explore methods and data relating to the work of the central bank of ireland. these initiatives complement our well - established tradition of sponsoring our own staff members to undertake doctoral degrees : for instance, twenty - four staff have completed doctorates since 2011. in fact, our commitment to the further education of our staff is extremely broad, with staff 2 / 5 bis central bankers'speeches members taking diplomas and post - graduate degrees across a wide range of disciplines. in relation to climate change, the central bank of ireland fully recognises that climate change and the transition to a low - carbon economy and society constitute major policy challenges, with profound implications for macroeconomic outcomes and the behaviour of the financial system ( donnery 2019, lane 2019a ). as a member of the