I am pleased to have the opportunity to present this Bill to the House. Its main purpose is, in necessary cases, to replace Irish pound amounts in law with convenient amounts in euro, to operate from 1 January 2002. The Bill also amends our law to take account of the fact that Greece has adopted the euro, and to cater for the closure of the TARGET settlement system on 31 December this year, and on 1 May each year from now on.
The background is as follows. Under Regulation (EC) No. 974/98, Irish pound amounts in law at end 2001 are from then on to be read as amounts in euro, converted at the fixed conversion rate of 1 = £0.787564 and rounded to the nearest cent.
As a result, convenient Irish pound amounts will convert to non-convenient amounts in euro, for instance, £10 converts to 12.70. Action is, therefore, being taken to provide, in necessary cases, for example, where amounts are usually paid in cash, for convenient amounts in euro to replace existingIrish pound amounts from the start of next year.
The Bill complements the work done on this issue, for instance, in this year's Finance Act and Social Welfare Act. It is aimed essentially at dealing with places elsewhere in law where Departments have identified a need for convenient amounts in euro. I stress that the principle on which the move to convenient amounts, where necessary, has been made is that in all such cases we should favour the citizen.
By way of background to the Bill, I propose to give the House a brief description of the current state of changeover preparations. Euro notes and coins will be introduced into circulation on 1 January 2002. There will then be a period of approximately six weeks while the use of euro cash will be increasing and the use of Irish cash will be decreasing. Under our cash changeover plan, published last year, legal tender status is to be withdrawn from Irish notes and coins at midnight on Saturday, 9 February 2002. This six week period strikes an appropriate balance between enabling people to familiarise themselves with the new currency and ensuring that the changeover is carried out quickly. In March I laid a draft order before both Houses of the Oireachtas to provide for the withdrawal of legal tender status at midnight on 9 February 2002. Senators will be aware that a resolution approving the order is being taken together with the debate on this Bill.
There are essentially six elements to the preparations for the changeover to the euro. These are legislation, the production of euro cash, preparations by the public sector, preparations by the private sector, consumer matters and the provision of public information. I have dealt with recent legislation in this area. Cash production will involve over 200 million euro notes and over 1,000 million euro coins, and I am assured by the Central Bank that production is on target.
Each Department and body is responsible for the changeover of its own operations, but they must report regularly to my Department. These reports continue to confirm that progress on implementation of the departmental changeover plans and those of the bodies under their aegis is on target. To give a single example of the work in hand, the child benefit books now being issued by the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs include payment orders denominated in euro in respect of months from January next onwards.
As regards preparations by the private sector, the Forfás EMU Business Awareness Campaign was established in 1996 to provide businesses with the information they need to prepare themselves for the changeover. The campaign has distributed very large quantities of information to Irish businesses. Forfás has also involved business extensively in its campaign by means of its consultative committee, which includes a wide range of business organisations, and its retail group, which includes a wide range of retail organisations. The Forfás Loughrea Euro Town Project, under the aegis of the Minister of State, Deputy Treacy, provided excellent case studies of the practical experience of businesses making changeover preparations. The task of preparing businesses for the changeover is, of course, one for businesses themselves. The Forfás survey published in February clearly indicated that some businesses had not yet set about their changeover preparations. If there are still companies in that position, the message for them is clear. You must prepare now – by 1 January 2002, less than seven months away, your business must be able to operate in euro.
Within the business sector retailers have a particular role to play in the cash changeover. The House will be aware that under the cash changeover plan, retailers will give change only in euro from 1 January 2002 and that Irish notes and coins being received inwards will be retained and not issued outwards again. The purpose of these arrangements is obvious, to make sure the changeover to euro cash is carried out as quickly and efficiently as possible. This is particularly in the interests of retailers.
A number of measures are being taken to help retailers in their preparations for the changeover. The Euro Changeover Board has produced a computer programme that will help retailers to calculate their euro cash requirements for the first week of 2002. This programme is available as a compact disc or can be downloaded from the board's website at www.euro.ie. In addition, the board and the Central Bank have reached an agreement with the banks whereby, in return for a lodgement fee paid by the Central Bank, banks will not charge cash handling charges on euro cash provided to retailers in advance of 1 January 2002 or on Irish notes and coins lodged by retailers during the dual circulation period and for a short time afterwards. The banks are currently communicating with their retailer customers about their arrangements in relation to this agreement and in that context are giving details of the date next January on which they will debit retailer customers for the euro cash provided to them in advance of 1 January.
As regards retailers' internal preparations, Forfás has produced a document, Getting your retail businesses ready for the euro, of which over 170,000 copies of it have been issued, including one to every retailer in the country. Forfás is currently developing a training pack for retailers, and a copy of this also will be issued to every retailer in the country.
The consumer aspects of the changeover are being addressed by my colleague Deputy Kitt, Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment with responsibility for consumer affairs, and by the Director of Consumer Affairs. They relaunched the national code of practice on the euro changeover last December along with an action plan for consumer protection during the changeover. A key aspect of the code is that subscribers to it commit themselves to carrying out the changeover fairly and to seek no advantage from the conversion.
The Director of Consumer Affairs has sent the national code to over 200 organisations along with a sample letter for issue to their members and a form of undertaking, inviting them and their members to subscribe to that code or to draw up a suitable sectoral code for approval under the national code. Any approved code would have to contain the same commitment about carrying out the changeover fairly. Retailers who sign up to the code or to an approved sectoral code will be entitled to display a euro logo and the Director of Consumer Affairs will be advising consumers to shop where they see the logo.
The final element in the changeover preparations is the provision of public information. The Euro Changeover Board of Ireland has responsibility in this area and it has been carrying out very extensive public information activities since its establishment in a programme that is part funded by the EU. Among many other items, the board has sent a leaflet about the euro to every household, every year since its establishment. It has organised widespread circulation of leaflets, posters, booklets and other information materials, including educational material for schools and materials for every teacher. It has run several advertising campaigns on television and radio and in the press. It has set up a lo-call helpline and a website, the latter with a special section for schools, and it has made a train-the-trainers pack widely available for general use in both the public and voluntary sectors.
The needs of low awareness and special needs groups are catered for through the board's consultative panel. This panel includes organisations representing groups likely to have low awareness of the euro, essentially older people, people on low incomes, people based in the home and organisations representing people likely to have special needs in the changeover to the euro, for example, people with visual or hearing impairment.
Furthermore, the board runs a programme of part funding for non-governmental organisations carrying out euro information activities and many of the projects funded under the programme related to these groups. This programme has been operated by the board since 1998. Its most recent round of funding, which closed in early April, attracted over 150 applications. The board issues very large quantities of information. In the month of April alone, it issued over half a million items of information about the euro. Public information activities will of course intensify greatly in the autumn.
This is a short and technical Bill. It has been the subject of widespread consultation among interested parties, including those represented on the Euro Changeover Board of Ireland. Most of the money amounts covered in the Bill are routine fees and charges in respect of licences, permits, etc., which are or may be paid in cash. These are being reduced to the nearest convenient amount below the exact euro equivalent so as to favour the citizen. To take one example, Senators may be familiar with the deposit for candidates at elections to county councils. This currently stands at £50, which would convert to 63.49 at the conversion rate. However, in the Bill I provide for the more convenient, and easier to remember, amount of 60.
The Bill also includes a number of thresholds, and these are being increased to the nearest convenient, and memorable, euro amounts, again so as to favour the citizen. An example here is the £500 threshold for disclosure of gifts under the Ethics in Public Office Act, 1995, which would convert to 634.87. The Bill provides for a convenient amount of 650.
Section 1 provides for the replacement of Irish pound amounts, at specific references in Acts and statutory instruments, with convenient euro amounts to apply from 1 January 2002. It does so by means of general provisions which refer to the Schedules to the Bill.
Schedule 1 lists the Irish pound amounts being replaced, and the euro amounts to replace them, in respect of fees and charges and Schedule 2 lists the statutory references at which the replacement will take place. Similarly, Schedule 3 lists the Irish pound amounts being replaced, and the euro amounts to replace them, in respect of thresholds and Schedule 4 lists the statutory references at which the replacement will take place.
In all cases only the specific amount appearing at the exact statutory reference will be replaced. Other amounts appearing elsewhere in those Acts will not be affected, but will convert to euro at the conversion rate, under an EU regulation. Sections 2 and 3 provide respectively for dispensing with consents and for the continuation of existing powers to set amounts. They are included for the avoidance of doubt.
Section 4 provides for two amendments to the Economic and Monetary Union Act, 1998. The first updates the definition of "participating member state" in the 1998 Act to include Greece, which adopted the euro on 1 January last, and caters for the fact that other member states may do so. The second amendment enables the alignment of the withdrawal time of legal tender status from Irish pound notes and coins, intended for midnight on Saturday, 9 February 2002, with the repeal of earlier law under which Irish pound notes and coins are issued and under which limits are placed on the number of coins that may be tendered. The wording of the 1998 Act means repeals would come into effect from the start of the day for withdrawal of legal tender status from Irish notes and coins, whereas legal tender status would continue until the end of the day. The amendment will eliminate this gap. The draft order before the House on withdrawal of legal tender status has been drawn up on the assumption that the 1998 Act will be amended as provided for in this section. The order will not be made until this Bill has been enacted.
Section 5 amends section 135 of the Central Bank Act, 1989, to defer until the next working day the giving of value by banks in respect of transactions due for processing by them on a day when the TARGET interbank settlement system is closed by decision of the European Central Bank. This already happens in respect of public holidays as most days on which TARGET is closed correspond with our public holidays. Exceptions are Labour Day on 1 May as our public holiday is on the first Monday in May, and 31 December this year as the ECB has decided that TARGET should be closed to safeguard the smooth conversion of retail payment systems and internal bank systems to the euro. The ECB has welcomed our intention to introduce this provision.
Section 6 amends the Credit Union Act, 1997, in a number of ways with effect from 1 January 2002. It redefines a share in a credit union as one euro, instead of one pound, standing to the credit of a member in a share account. It makes a number of consequential changes to amounts dependent on the definition of a share and substitutes convenient amounts in euro for certain minimum and maximum amounts in the Act. Section 7 amends the Bankruptcy Act, 1988, with effect from 1 January 2002. It replaces five references to "pound in the pound" and "50 pence in the pound" with appropriate references to euro amounts. These amounts represent thresholds or targets in relation to the settlement of the debts of a bankrupt and govern matters like the discharge of the bankruptcy and the return of property when all debts and costs are settled.
Section 8 provides for the threshold for declaration of interest by staff of the Heritage Council. The Irish pound and euro amounts are included in Schedule 3, but 1,300 in figures is being substituted for the present "one thousand pounds" in words in the Heritage Act, 1995, in line with general drafting practice. Section 9 contains the usual citation provisions.
The main aim of the Bill is to provide, where necessary, for the replacement of Irish pound amounts in law with convenient amounts in euro to apply from 1 January 2002. Taken together with similar measures in finance and social welfare Acts, the Bill should broadly complete what might be called the euro pricelist for the more common transactions between the citizen and the State. Although the Bill is short and technical, it incorporates an important principle. The changeover should favour the citizen where convenience demands there must be a departure from neutral conversion. The Bill is also a further demonstration of the Government's commitment to making timely preparations for the changeover to the euro. I thank Senators for considering this Bill and for agreeing to take all Stages today.
