The Governor of the Central Bank has said it is "essential" that Ireland integrates further into the EU's single market.
Gabriel Makhlouf made the comments ahead of a meeting of the Atlantic Council as part of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Group week in Washington DC.
He said it is also "essential" that the single market delivers on its potential, which was among the recommendations of a review carried out last year.
"New ways of working and new relationships are vital in the face of the headwinds we see globally," he added.
The Central Bank Governor said: "We need to recognise that the world which we grew up with has changed and that more change is guaranteed."
"I suggest that our energies should be tilted towards the challenge of creating the new world ahead of us rather than the comfort of preserving the old."
Mr Makhlouf said Irish institutions are committed to international cooperation.
"We will continue to advocate for, and play a key role in, developing the new multilateral order that our economies need and our communities want."
He said Ireland is "a small, highly open, highly globalised and very well-connected economy in an increasingly fragmented world."
As a result, the Central Bank Governor said an environment of "trade barriers and policy uncertainty and unpredictability has economic costs" for Ireland.
He said while the 15% US tariffs will reduce exports to the US, he said "they are not prohibitive to trade" and while the US market is important for Ireland, he said "it is far from our only one."
Governor Makhlouf said Ireland is part of the world’s largest single market and he said the country is facing the current challenges "from a position of relative strength, having benefitted from decades of FDI-led growth."
"We have a flexible and skilled labour force, strong economic and population growth, and a welcome, intense focus from Government on closing infrastructure gaps in water, energy, transport, and housing."
On the current monetary policy, in terms of inflation and interest rates, Mr Makhlouf, who is a member of the European Central Bank Governing Council, said: "We continue to be in a good place with the disinflationary process behind us, the European economy showing resilience and inflation where we want it to be."
"We are not pre-committing to a particular rate path and will continue to determine the appropriate monetary policy stance by following a data-dependent and meeting-by-meeting approach."
