sharon donnery : welcoming # irelandeu50 and commissioner mairead mcguinness opening remarks by ms sharon donnery, deputy governor of the central bank of ireland, before a recording of the european movement ireland's podcast series # irelandeu50, dublin, 24 april 2023. * * * good evening. a dhaoine uasile, agus a chairde go leir, is mor an pleisiuir dom a bheith in bhur dteannta annocht agus failte isteach go leirchuig banc ceannais na heireann. ba mhaith liom failte speisialta a thabhairt do choimisineir mairead mcguinness ata anseo inniu chun caint linn. it is a pleasure to be able to welcome you all here tonight to the central bank of ireland's campus on behalf of the european commission representation in ireland, in co - operation with european movement ireland for an evening with commissioner mairead mcguinness to mark and celebrate the 50th anniversary of ireland's european union accession. we are joined by representatives from embassies across the european union, my own colleagues from the central bank as well as guests of the european commission representation and european movement ireland from across ireland's business and public sectors. and while we will have another occasion to mark its launch, the bank will also commemorate the importance of our european union accession through the launch of a special commemorative coin later this year. entry into the european community, and later the european union, has had a profound effect on the development and modernisation of the irish economy and wider society over the last 50 years. one of the most visible effects – and closest to the work of the central bank – has been in the financial sector. ensuring the free movement of goods, services, capital and people through membership of the single market has encouraged the irish financial sector to grow enormously over the decades, allowing us to far outperform in the global economy what would be expected of our relatively small population. our ability to trade freely in financial services with other nations in the european union and beyond has in turn opened up many further business and economic opportunities for the country. global financial services firms from international banks, investment managers and insurers are domiciled here. 1 / 2 bis - central bankers'speeches the insurance market in ireland is the sixth largest in the european union

claims ; and differential pricing, where we have set out a number of immediate requirements to insurers as we work towards publication of our full ndings, together with a potential consultation on proposals to further protect consumers, planned for july 20213 ; and 4. resolving both pandemic related and longer term distressed debt in the system, ensuring the fair treatment of borrowers in nancial distress and preserving nancial stability. in delivering the above, we remain focused on seeking to ensure that regulated rms : ( i ) have sustainable business models ; ( ii ) suf cient nancial resources including through times of plausible and severe stresses ; ( iii ) are well governed, with appropriate cultures and effective risk management ; and ( iv ) can recover if they get into dif culty and are resolvable without recourse to the taxpayer if they cannot. given the audience today, i want to focus in on governance and risk management. before covering these areas in detail, i think it is worthwhile to re ect on the pandemic. covid - 19 we are still experiencing a profound shock from the covid - 19 pandemic. it is, rst and foremost, a cause of human tragedy. it has challenged our resilience in many ways and has had a devastating effect on many families and individuals. the health emergency has also had a profoundly negative effect on many businesses and household incomes, due to the associated economic disruption4. while the timing and nature of the current shock were largely unforeseen, the central bank has long recognised the inevitability of economic shocks and downturns. we have focused over the last decade on rebuilding and increasing the nancial and operational resilience of the irish nancial system. consumer and investor protection frameworks have also been signi cantly enhanced with this in mind. much of the central bank ’ s focus over the last year has been on mitigating the effects of the pandemic. the central bank ’ s intertwined responsibilities – consumer protection ; monetary policy ; prudential regulation ; payments, and so on – have strong interconnections with each other. this positions us well to understand and mitigate the effects of the pandemic. the economic challenges posed by covid - 19 have been met by exceptional policy support. this has included a range of scal, monetary, macro - prudential and micro - prudential policy actions ( as well as actions taken