*  *  *  Ladies and gentlemen, the Vice-President and I would first like to express to all of you our best wishes for the New Year and welcome you to this press conference. Let me now report on the outcome of today’s meeting of the ECB’s Governing Council, which was also attended by Commissioner Almunia.
A decade of deleveraging and more prudent lending standards leave our economy and financial system much less exposed. And in face of recent global banking concerns the benefits of robust regulation and supervision, prudent risk management practices and the strong capital and liquidity buffers we have collectively built in the Irish banking system have proven their worth. But despite such resilience risks clearly remain.