in the early months of 2006 and the latest staff projections suggesting that, at unchanged interest rates, hicp inflation would probably remain above 2 per cent both this year and next, a further increase in interest rates was recently deemed to be warranted. with respect to these two decisions, i would strongly emphasise a few points. in raising interest rates, on each occasion, the governing council was responding to the risks to price stability as it perceived them. as president trichet has stated emphatically, the governing council has not taken any ‘ ex ante ’ decision to engage mechanically in a series of interest rate increases. i would emphasise that the governing council does not pre - commit unconditionally to any future action. our approach is to consider the most up - to - date information and analysis of the economic and monetary situation and prospects and to act accordingly. i would also emphasise that the governing council stands ready to do whatever is necessary to ensure the maintenance of price stability and will act to anchor medium to long - term inflation expectations. the smooth reaction to the recent interest rate increases suggests that markets understand our underlying rationale. ongoing risks i would like to turn now and make a few brief remarks on the main risks to the outlook for growth and inflation which lie ahead. i will begin with oil prices. not only do high and volatile oil prices threaten to slow growth, they also raise the risk of higher inflation and it is essential to ensure that second - round effects on wage and price - setting behaviour are avoided. in the longer term, it is difficult to say how the price of oil might evolve. however, recent oil price strength would appear to reflect the combination of strong demand, lack of spare production capacity and uncertainties surrounding supply. this makes it likely that higher oil prices will persist for some time yet and there is an ongoing risk that oil prices could rise further and potentially combine with other negative factors to cause more protracted problems for the global and euro area economies. oil prices are not the only external factor complicating the outlook. there are also the risks posed by widening global current account imbalances, which show no signs of abating. the seemingly everincreasing us current deficit implies the potential for significant volatility in foreign exchange markets and this continues to be one of the most important downside risks to growth. there are also risks from within. in particular, reflecting the stimulative effect of low interest rates on the monetary aggregates

census of population 2016 - profile 1 housing in ireland. see central statistics office. census of population 2016 - profile 1 housing in ireland. figure 2. 2. this shows a long term decrease in the number of average persons per household since 1966 to 2011. from 2011 to 2016, the trend changed and there was a small increase of the average number of persons per household. see the joint oireachtas committee joint committee on housing, planning & local government report on the impact of short term lettings on ireland ’ s housing and rental market. the report noted the lack of detailed information on the topic but did advise that “ preliminary research conducted by dublin city council in march 2017 on the extent of airbnb activity in dublin suggests that a total of 6, 729 listings existed on airbnb for all of dublin, with 5, 377 listings located within the dublin city council area at that point in time. of these, 50 % were listings for entire houses or apartments ”. see the central bank of ireland quarterly bulletin 2018 q2. box c “ leading indicators of new housing output ”. see central statistics office census of population 2016 - profile 1 housing in ireland. see eurostat - key figures on europe 2017 edition central bank of ireland - restricted source - internal central bank reports. data as at 31 december 2017. banks retail credit firms unregulated loan owners total overview of irish mortgage market pdh btl €bn % €bn % €90. 6 92 % €19. 0 87 % €5. 9 6 % €1. 2 5 % €2. 1 2 % €1. 7 8 % €98. 5 100 % €21. 9 100 % total €bn €109. 6 €7. 1 €3. 8 €120. 5 % 91 % 6 % 3 % 100 % it is important to note that these are individual mortgage accounts. some households may have more than one mortgage on a property. in the 2016 census, the central statistics office note that the total number of households with a mortgage was 535, 675 and this is down 8 % since 2011 – see central statistics office census of population 2016 - profile 1 housing in ireland – tenure and rent source : “ macroprudential measures and irish mortgage lending : an overview of 2017 ”. overview of new roi mortgage lending section 1 : irish mortgage lending macroprudential measures new roi mortgage lending ( € millions ) new roi mortgage lending ( number of loans )