asked the Minister for Finance if he will review the amount of currency which people can take out of the country at present.
139.
Written Answers. - Travellers' Currency.
138.
asked the Minister for Finance if he will review the regulations regarding taking Irish currency out of the country.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 138 and 139 together.
Irish residents may only take currency notes out of the country for the purposes of personal travel. The amount of currency notes so permitted was last increased on 1 January 1988 and is as follows: foreign currency notes — allowance increased from the equivalent of IR£500 to the equivalent of IR£1,200; Irish currency notes — allowance increased from IR£100 to IR£150.
The current allowances exceed those which the OECD Code of Liberalisation of Current Invisible Operations requires its member states to provide — SDR 1,250 (IR£1,050 approximately) and SDR 150 (IR£125 approximately) respectively.
Funds in excess of these limits may, of course, be transferred out of the country, by means other than currency notes, for genuine travel purposes, or other approved transactions. I have no immediate plans for a review of the regulations governing the export of currency notes. These will, of course, fall to be reviewed in the context of liberalising capital movements with other EC member states, which we are committed to achieving by the end of 1992.