The Bill was last debated before the Recess on 23rd July, 1970. On that occasion I made the point that the Bill was brought about because of our proposed entry into EEC and not because of any demand for a change in the currency system on the part of the general public or the business sector of the community. I suggested that perhaps a better unit of currency would have been the 10s piece rather than the £1. I believe that the £1 unit was imposed on us, as so much has been, by the British because of a sentimental attachment to that unit and a demand from their business section to hold on to that unit. The 10s piece, made up of the original ten units of 1s and now the five new pence piece, would surely have been much more easily convertible and would have been far easier to compare with other international currencies such as the dollar. The original ten coins which made up the various units of our coinage have now been reduced to six under the decimal currency regulations. It is a pity that the 6d piece which has no equivalent in the new decimal currency could not have been retained. This coin would have been most useful. The Minister, in his speech on the Second Reading, mentioned its usefulness on a couple of occasions and suggested it would be used to compare costs of items which cost small amounts when the changeover is being made. He said: "Since 6d in the old currency is exactly equivalent to 2½ new pence exact change can always be given to customers tendering sixpenny multiples."
There is a period commencing in February next when the changeover will take place and referred to in the Bill as the changeover period and, in his speech, the Minister suggested that this period would take possibly up to one year by the time people were fully conversant with the new currency. But in the Bill, in section 6, I think, it states quite clearly that cheques drawn in the old currency during that period will be invalid. The Minister must surely see the amount of confusion this is bound to bring about in the coming year and perhaps in such circumstances advantage will be taken of this part of the Bill by certain unprincipled people to delay payments. The past year has gone by in the main without the banks being open. When we last discussed the Bill the bank strike was going on. That strike is now over but the banks are not yet open to the public. The added strain on the staffs of the banks in dealing with the flood of business they will meet when the banks do open will leave them with very little time or energy for the changeover to decimal currency.
In the first annual report of the Irish Decimal Currency Board, page 12, it is stated:
The banks have a key role to play in the changeover. They are cooperating with the Board and the Central Bank in detailed plans for the vast withdrawal of LSD coins and the issue and distribution of decimal coins.
That was stated in November, 1969. Since then the banks have been closed for six months and the co-operation mentioned must have been very little indeed. There is no specific mention of the banks' role in the second annual report of the Irish Decimal Currency Board. Perhaps the date set for the changeover is now a little premature since the banks were not operating for quite a long period and I wonder would the Minister now consider postponing the date for the changeover until the banks are themselves in a position to deal properly with the changeover and the withdrawal of the coins.
The first period of advertising in connection with the changeover has been directed mainly to the business community. At least 14,000 people have attended talks given under the auspices of the Decimal Currency Board in towns throughout the country. The figures given in the appendix to the second annual report would suggest that interest varies quite considerably from one centre of population to another. Three talks were given in Galway and only 139 people turned up to those three talks. In Bray 280 people attended one talk. An attendance of 14,000 at these talks out of the total business population seems a very small figure. The bulk of the work of getting the message across to the general public remains to be done in the few weeks after Christmas.
The Minister suggested in his opening speech that the main pressure of publicity will be crammed into the last six weeks and that each household will be given an explanatory leaflet. In some shops efforts are being made to acclimatise people to the changeover by putting the prices of the articles on sale in both currencies. I would have thought that some publicity could have been given on television and radio to back up this effort by these more enterprising businesses.
No details are given in the report of the breakdown of the cost. It is suggested that £240,000 will be required to complete the publicity campaign. This is added to a figure of, I think, £78,000. I would say this is an inflated figure for this particular exercise. The Minister should give the House some details about what is being done with this £340,000 in effecting this changeover. I expect there will be heavy advertising in the newspapers and on television. This expenditure of £340,000 is being imposed because of the likely, or unlikely, prospect of our entry into the EEC. It seems a somewhat costly exercise when one considers some other expenditures on other futile exercises in the recent past, expenditures on tribunals and so forth. The Irish public have been asked to pay almost £1 million for various tribunals. Now there is this additional expenditure on the changeover to decimal currency, with no benefit to the public, and I think the Minister should at least give some details as to how this £240,000 will be spent in completing the changeover.
