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Part II Overseeing the detailed Implementation of the Changeover
The first of the Board's two tasks is to oversee the detailed implementation of the changeover. In this area, two main issues faced the Board at its establishment. The first related to the need to ensure that all necessary legislation at national level was in place for the launch of the euro on 1 January 1999; the second concerned the preparation of a third edition of EMU and the Euro: Ireland's National Changeover Plan. As regards legislation, at EU level the two Council Regulations which together make up the legal framework for the use of the euro were already in place. 1At national level, the Central Bank Act, 1998, which provides for the compatibility of Ireland's Central Bank legislation with Articles 107 and 108 of the Treaty on European Union, 2was signed by the President on 18 March 1998 while the Finance Act, 1998, which (in Section 47 and Schedule 2) provides for the taxation changes required for the introduction of the euro on 1 January 1999, was signed by the President on 27 March 1998. (A minor amendment to it is contained in Section 87 of the Finance Act, 1999). 10. Economic and Monetary Union Act, 1998 Further changes in national law were still required, however, and the draft scheme of a Bill to provide for them had already been circulated for consultation to the Euro Changeover Group (the forerunner of the Board) in March 1998. Following this consultation process, the draft scheme became the Economic and Monetary Union Bill, 1998, which was presented to the Oireachtas by the Minister for Finance on 3 June 1998 and, following its passage through the Oireachtas, was signed by the President on 13 July 1998. The Economic and Monetary Union Act, 1998 declares that by virtue of Council Regulation (EC) No 974/98, from 1 January 1999 the currency of the State is the euro and the Irish pound is a subdivision of it. The Act also removes incompatibilities between Irish monetary law and the EU legal framework for the use of the euro and gives effect to enabling provisions in that framework, for example in relation to redenomination into euro of outstanding debt. The Act was also designed to facilitate companies which wish to redenominate and renominalise their capital structure into euro before the final changeover to the euro on 1 January 2002. The Act also provides authority for the design, issue and sale of commemorative legal tender coinage. The Act is in three parts. Part 1 (dealing with preliminary and general provisions) and Part III (dealing with commemorative coins) came into effect with the signature of the Act by the President. Part II contains the remaining provisions, and the Act provides that the Minister for Finance may commence the provisions of that Part by Order. Two Commencement Orders have been made in relation to Part II. The Economic and Monetary Union Act, 1998 (Certain Provisions) (Commencement) Order, 1998 [S.I. No 279 of 1998] was made on 28 July 1998. The Economic and Monetary Union Act, 1998 (Certain Provisions) (Commencement) (No 2) Order, 1998 [S.I. No 527 of 1998] was made on 22 December 1998. Between them, these two Orders brought all sections of Part II into operation except Section 11(2): this provides for the issue of euro coins by the Minister for Finance and a Commencement Order in respect of it will be made closer to their introduction on 1 January 2002. 12. Order on Redenomination of Debt An Order under the Act was also made in relation to redenomination of debt. The Economic and Monetary Union Act, 1998 (Redenomination of Negotiable Debt Instruments) Order, 1998 [S.I. No 424 of 1998] was made on 29 October 1998. This Order empowered the Minister for Finance, or the National Treasury Management Agency on his behalf, to redenominate into euro, with effect from 1 January 1999, bonds, bills and notes issued by or on behalf of the Minister in the Irish pound unit under Irish law. 13. The National Changeover Plan The second main issue in the implementation area facing the Board at its establishment related to the National Changeover Plan. The first and second editions of EMU and the Euro: Ireland's National Changeover Plan were published in May 1997 and January 1998 respectively. It was clearly desirable to review the Plan in the run-up to the launch of the euro and to revise and update it as appropriate. The Board was fully consulted in this task and the third edition of the Plan was published by the Minister for Finance on 18 November 1998. 14. The Third Edition of the National Changeover Plan Like its predecessors, the third edition of the National Changeover Plan was approved by the Government and set out the arrangements being made by the public sector (including the Department of Finance, the Central Bank, the National Treasury Management Agency and the Revenue Commissioners), banks and building societies, the Irish Stock Exchange, the Irish Business and Employers Confederation (IBEC) and others to facilitate the changeover to the euro. The introduction was updated, while the main additions to the text compared with the second edition were:
With the necessary legislation in place and the third edition of the National Changeover Plan published, the Board's preparations for the actual launch of the euro on 1 January 1999 intensified. Obviously the key players in the launch were the Minister for Finance and his Department, the Central Bank of Ireland, the National Treasury Management Agency, banks and building societies and the Irish Stock Exchange. Nevertheless, the Board and its Secretariat were closely involved in a number of aspects of the launch, as the following description of events shows. 16. Events of 31 December 1998
The Council of EU Economics and Finance Ministers (ECOFIN) met in Brussels on 31 December 1998 and, in accordance with the Treaty on European Union, irrevocably fixed the conversion rates to apply between the currencies of the eleven Member States joining EMU and the euro. In Ireland's case, the conversion rate is 17. Events of 1-4 January 1999 The euro came into being on the following day, 1 January 1999, and its launch was marked by a public relations event organised by the Euro Changeover Board of Ireland (ECBI) in the Central Bank on 1 January 1999. This was attended by the Taoiseach, the Governor of the Central Bank, Mr Maurice O'Connell and the Chairperson of the Board. Advertisements announcing the launch of the euro and dealing with conversion and rounding were placed by the Board in the Sunday newspapers on 3 January 1999. On 4 January 1999, the Chairperson of the Board deputised for the Minister for Finance at the launch of trading in euro on the Irish Stock Exchange. 18. Preparations for the Introduction of Euro Notes and Coins on 1 January 2002 Following the launch of the euro, attention naturally began to switch to the issues associated with the introduction of euro notes and coins on 1 January 2002 and the withdrawal of Irish pound notes and coins from that date. It is estimated that the changeover will involve the distribution of over 100m euro notes and up to 1,000m euro coins. Clearly such a task will need careful planning and preparation; equally, an extensive information programme will be needed to ensure that the public are kept well informed both in the run-up to the changeover and during it. Consideration of the issues involved has already begun, and the Secretariat was consulted in the preparation of a study commissioned by the Irish Bankers' Federation from consultants Deloitte and Touche on the logistics of the changeover in 2002; it also assisted in arranging for the consultants to meet groups represented on the Board.
Footnotes for Part II:
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1 = £0.787564. An officer from the Secretariat, with other officials, travelled to Brussels with the Minister for Finance for the meeting and relayed the conversion rates for the participating currencies to the Secretariat in Dublin, who arranged for their onward transmission to other Government Departments and offices. The Secretariat also arranged for inclusion on the Board's website on 31 December not only of the conversion rates, but also of a calculator for conversion of Irish pound amounts to euro and vice versa. In addition, the start of EMU, Ireland's entry into it and the fixing of the conversion rates were marked on 31 December 1998 by a reception in Leinster House for Oireachtas members, Ireland's members of the European Parliament and the social partners. The reception was hosted by the Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern TD, and the Chairperson of the Board acted as master of ceremonies at the reception. Copies of the Board's information pack, and of the information pack of the Forfás EMU Business Awareness Campaign, were made available at the reception and were later circulated to all Oireachtas members and to Ireland's Members of the European Parliament.