john hurley : schools ’ information pack on price stability speech by mr john hurley, governor of the central bank and financial services authority of ireland, at the launch of the schools ’ information pack on price stability, dublin, 24 january 2006. * * * a aire agus a dhaoine uaisle. dia dhibh go leir agus cead mile failte romhaibh go dti an banc ceannais. minister, president of the business studies teachers association and guests, you are all very welcome to the central bank. i am delighted that you could be with us today as we launch this new schools ’ information pack, price stability : why is it important to you. i am particularly happy to also welcome the students and their teachers today from marian college, st. mary ’ s cbs, st. vincent ’ s secondary school, scoil caitriona and st. mary ’ s college. they have come from various parts of the country to be with us today. i hope you ’ re not missing too many important classes as a result! developed by the european central bank and the 12 national central banks of the euro area, including, of course, our own central bank, this is a unique initiative. for the first time, the central banks of the euro area have produced a single cross - border education pack. it is being distributed to 50, 000 secondary schools, not only in ireland, but throughout the 12 countries that share the euro as their currency. i would like to say at the outset that i am delighted that the central bank has an opportunity to be involved in this way with the education of irish students on issues which are relevant in all our lives. while setting monetary policy and ensuring price stability may not seem on the surface to be one the most interesting of topics for young adults, i can assure you that it has a significant impact on the lives of each and every one of the 300 million people of the euro area. this information pack, i hope, helps to make it a little more interesting than you might expect and maybe even a little bit enjoyable, if that is possible! now, i ’ m sure that many young students will probably think, “ well, price stability is not actually that important to me … ” but in fact, stable prices and low inflation are a guarantee that your pocket money or savings from your summer or weekend jobs can buy you the things you want throughout the year. stable prices also help promote economic growth and

stefan gerlach : banking and fiscal union introductory remarks by mr stefan gerlach, deputy governor of the central bank of ireland, at a panel session at the eui conference on “ the state of play in the euro area – fixing the emu for the long term ”, florence, 21 january 2013. * * * i am grateful to rebecca stuart for her help in preparing these remarks. while plenty of work has been undertaken since last summer on establishing a european banking union, progress has been uneven and it has stalled in some areas. of course, it is difficult to build consensus in a situation where bank resolutions may become necessary, and deposit insurance schemes could be called on, in the near future. this is a matter that ideally should have been discussed and settled when emu was formed, much in the same way as a car must be insured before it can be driven. unfortunately, that route was not taken. much of the interest in banking union arises because it is a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for the esm to recapitalise banks. indeed, the establishment of the single supervisory mechanism ( ssm ) with the ecb is frequently seen as having been adopted precisely because this is the fastest road, legally and institutionally, to banking union. it is of course essential and urgent to enable the esm to support banking systems in order to overcome some of the tensions in the euro area, and there is intense public debate about how best to structure the ssm. in my introductory remarks today, however, i would like to take a step back from that debate and instead reflect more broadly on why a banking union is important for any monetary union to function well and why it is natural to locate the ssm with, or at least “ close to ”, the central bank in such a union. banking supervision why might it be beneficial to have a ssm in a monetary union? to my mind, one important reason is that a greater remove between supervisors and the banks they regulate can help improve the capacity for challenge and ensure a broader, more detached, perspective on the issues. in particular, it would ensure the independence of the supervisory and regulatory decision - making process from national political pressure, and avoid regulatory capture. for example, a distant supervisor may take action to address risks arising from a bubble in good times that a national supervisor would come under pressure to overlook. it also seems unlikely that a banking supervisor from, say, italy or ireland, sitting in frankfurt,