Minister launches Euro Changeover Board's Household Handbook A special Euro Changeover Handbook will be sent to every household in the country during the month of October, the Minister for Finance, Mr Charlie McCreevy TD, announced today (Friday 28 September 2001). The Minister was launching the final phase of the Euro Changeover Board of Ireland's (ECBI) public information campaign as well as the results of the Board's latest public awareness survey and details of its third annual report. The Euro Handbook contains 24 pages of factual information, including how the changeover to euro cash will work, how long it will take and what we can all do to help it work smoothly; what euro notes and coins will look like; how to convert from Irish pounds to euro and from euro to Irish pounds; and what the key organisations will do for the changeover. As well as being sent to every household, the handbook will also be available on the Board's website www.euro.ie The Minister said the Handbook will build on people's existing levels of awareness and on what they want to know next, as revealed in the results of the latest ECBI public awareness survey. "The latest survey shows that 87% of people know that euro cash will arrive on 1 January 2002 and that 79% know what a pound is worth in euro. People now want to know how the changeover will work, how to convert and what euro cash will look like. The Handbook covers these aspects. I urge everybody to take time to read it and to keep it for reference from now to the end of the changeover period," he said. The main findings in the national survey, carried out in July 2001 by Irish Marketing Surveys, are that   - 87% of people know that euro notes and coins will be introduced in January 2002   - 84% of people know that the euro is made up of cent   - 79% of people know that a pound is worth one euro and 27 cent   - 46% are generally aware of the length of the dual circulation period    Philip Hamell, Chairperson of the ECBI, said the Board was pleased that the basic facts about the euro are now very widely known and that people are moving on to the information they will need for the changeover itself, which is only three months away. "Clearly the extensive public information work described in our third annual report has been bearing fruit. During the year ending 30 April 2001, we distributed over 3.5 million information items, including a leaflet to every household in the country. Our website recorded over 100,000 visits in that period." The Board also sent a set of subject guidelines on the euro to every teacher in the country, produced a training pack for use by voluntary organisations to train their members, and distributed euroFloat, a special software package to help retailers assess the amount of euro notes and coins they will need for their tills in early January. The Board also greatly expanded its Programme of part-funding euro information activities by non-Governmental Organisations. "In short," said Mr. Hamell, "we considerably developed our public information activities and laid a solid foundation for the intensive campaign we are launching today". As well as the Handbook, which will be distributed in October, the Board will be distributing a hand-held electronic converter to every household in the country in November.