The greatest challenge for states participating in EMU will be to create sufficient jobs and still meet the Maastricht criteria, the chief executive of Waterford Crystal has told a symposium in Dublin.

Mr Redmond O'Donoghue said attempts by some European government to reduce their "frighteningly high unemployment levels" might mean a "unstable euro" was created.

He was speaking at a half-day symposium organised by the Irish Exporters' Association in association with An Bord Bia and the Irish Trade Board.

He said all Irish firms would have to accept that competition will be increased and the benefits of a "level playing pitch" will apply to competitors in the EU. Another downside, he said, was that the Government would lose two key levers of control over the economy - interest rates and exchange rates.

In addition, conversion costs were likely to be high, with some estimates between 1 and 2 per cent of turnover.

However, overall, he welcomed EMU and said the greatest advantage of the euro was that market anomalies caused by exchange rate fluctuations between participating countries would be removed. He said another likely result of the single currency would be lower interest rates across Europe and lower rates of inflation.

The chief executive of the Irish Exporters' Association said, if Irish businesses switched over to the euro early, it would give them a competitive advantage.