financial conditions has tilted the balance of risks to euro area growth to the downside. the governing council has made it clear that it is determined to ensure that inflation expectations remain firmly anchored. looking ahead, the governing council has signalled that there is a need to gather additional information and assess new data, including the new projections due in early december, before drawing further conclusions for monetary policy. concluding remarks i want to conclude by briefly outlining the evolving economic environment in this country. ireland's economic fundamentals – as evidenced by a good budgetary position, strong employment growth and an adaptable economy – continue to be sound. the irish economy has performed solidly this year in circumstances where a rebalancing of economic activity is underway. the contribution of the domestic housing sector to economic growth is declining, though the overall construction sector remains strong. in these circumstances, judging by the overall level of growth, employment, output and exports, the economy has performed well in comparison with others in 2007. we expect the economy to grow next year by some 3 per cent. or so, and this in a situation where the rebalancing of economic activity will continue. such a performance would undoubtedly be a good performance particularly given the background of heightened uncertainty and serious market turbulence. finally, with regard to the broader international picture, the outlook is not without risk. it is heavily dependent on how market developments and financial conditions evolve, and how banks, households and firms respond. the performance to date of the core financial system in the euro area, and here at home, has been encouraging. the euro area operational framework has worked well and, as i have stated, continues to respond flexibly to the evolving situation. however, uncertainty remains high and it is likely to be some time yet before a broad measure of confidence returns to markets.

issues, we build business intelligence through the analysis of, for example, data on sales, complaints about products and services, advertising spends, new business and product development, issues arising from queries and social media, horizon scanning and feedback from supervisors, enforcement and authorisation officers. this helps us to detect and understand where potential consumer detriment can arise and helps supervisors compile conduct risk reports on which our actions to mitigate risk will be based. we use themed inspections to focus on a specific issue, topic or product rather than on a specific institution. we identify the themes to pursue in a number of ways, including consumer queries, complaints, issues arising from previous inspections, market intelligence and annual sectoral risk assessments, as well as advice from the consumer advisory group on our consumer protection strategy and policy initiatives. 16 themed inspections are conducted by survey or by a combination of survey and on - site inspections. following a themed inspection, we issue firm - specific letters, an industry - wide letter and a press release and publish our findings on the central bank website. where we identify a specific compliance issue in an individual firm, we address this directly with the firm. a credible threat of enforcement underscores our powers to protect consumers of financial services. we take robust enforcement action aimed at promoting principled and ethical behaviour by and within regulated entities. transparent and strong action where entities or individuals fall short of required standards helps to deter poor practices, achieve compliance and encourage the behaviour we expect. we take action where firms or individuals have breached provisions in prescribed legislation, a code, or a condition, requirement or obligation imposed by the central bank. in 2013, legislation provided the bank with formal redress powers to direct regulated financial services firms to make appropriate redress to customers where they have suffered or will suffer a loss as a result of widespread or regular relevant defaults by a regulated financial services provider. where consumers suffered detriment prior to 2013, we have used our influence to obtain redress for consumers on a range of issues including payment protection insurance and credit card protection insurance, as well as part of the tracker mortgage examination. 4 / 9 bis central bankers'speeches current priorities we set out what we see as the key risks now facing consumers in our consumer protection outlook report, which was published last week. 17 these range from the absence of a consumer - focused culture in financial services firms, through the ongoing problems of high levels of indebtedness and mortgage arrears, to the implications for consumers