TRAINING FOR THE EURO   The Euro Changeover Board of Ireland launched a special training pack on the changeover to the euro, today (Friday, 9th February, 2001, exactly twelve months before the Irish notes and coins cease to be legal tender). The pack will be made widely available to trainers and presenters in organisations including community and voluntary organisations, trade unions and staff associations. Mr Philip Hamell, Chairperson of the Euro Changeover Board of Ireland, said that the aim of the training pack is to widen the network of people with knowledge of the changeover, so that they in turn can train their colleagues and their organisations about it. This pack is easy for trainers to use and for course participants to follow.  We are confident that trainers will find it a very effective tool in helping their audience to understand about the euro.  We very much appreciate the work that these trainers and presenters will do to explain the changeover, and we hope they will use our pack as widely as possible to get the euro message across to the greatest possible number of people, he said. The pack contains an easy-to-follow presentation of nine slides covering topics such as the euro changeover timetable, how to convert from IR£ to euro, what euro notes and coins will look like and how the cash changeover will work.  The presentation is provided on disc as well as on acetates. The pack also includes a special booklet containing presenter notes on each slide and a set of questions and answers. The Euro Changeover Board of Ireland's consultative panel was extensively consulted in the preparation of the pack and information has already been distributed to the members. The panel comprises organisations representing groups with a low awareness on the euro and people likely to have special needs in the changeover. The pack has also been presented to training officers in Government Departments, who will be incorporating sessions on the euro in their training courses for civil service staff throughout the year.  It will also be distributed to training officers in the wider public service. The pack is available from the Board on LoCall 1890 20 10 50. It can also be downloaded from the Board's website at www.euro.ie   Ends