In the same year of 1958, the Industrial Development Authority was created, bringing the stimulus of foreign investment into the Irish economy. Subsequently, you guided Ireland’s programme of trade liberalisation and structural reform in the 1960s. Economic growth accelerated as a result.
In 1973 Ireland acceded to the EU in a process to which you played a significant role as Governor of the Irish Central Bank. So far I have looked backward but in true Central Banking style I have done so only so that I may look forward, in particular to the challenges facing Europe now.