Restoring confidence is clearly a necessary step in what will be a very difficult road ahead for a number of countries. These events again remind us of the very hard choices that countries can be forced to make if prudent policies are not implemented in the good times.
However, I would like to stress that the organisation which I lead, the Central Bank and Financial Services Authority of Ireland, has over the years delivered a wide range of key services to the Irish economy, including consumer protection, consumer information, effective electronic payments systems, avoidance of excessive inflation as part of its Eurosystem objectives, the supply of liquidity to the banking sector, and the production and issuance of bank notes and coins, to mention just a few, none of which is called into question by the terms of reference of this report.