PART II: Overseeing the detailed implementation of the changeover

8. Introduction  The first of the Board's two tasks is to oversee the detailed implementation of the changeover. The focus of the Board's activities in this area was the preparation of a plan for the changeover to euro notes and coins from 1 January 2002.

9. Preparations for the Introduction of Euro Notes and Coins on 1 January 2002 Following the successful launch of the euro in January 1999, attention naturally switched to the arrangements for introducing euro notes and coins on 1 January 2002 (e-day) and withdrawing Irish notes and coins from that date. The Secretariat had already been consulted in the preparation of a study commissioned by the Irish Bankers' Federation (IBF) from consultants Deloitte and Touche on the logistics of the cash changeover in 2002, and it had also assisted in arranging for the consultants to meet groups represented on the Board. When the study was completed, the Secretariat arranged with the IBF for the consultants to make a presentation on it to the Board and its Sub-Committees and to the Retail Sub-Group of the Forfás EMU Business Awareness Campaign: all endorsed the thrust of the study's recommendations.

10. Establishment of Cash Changeover Working Group  The Board then set up a Cash Changeover Working Group to examine the study with a view to producing a cash changeover plan. The Working Group's membership was drawn from the organisations that will be most closely involved in implementing the changeover in 2002, including the Forfás Retail Sub-Group. The Working Group met intensively in pursuit of its task and in March 2000 the Board approved the draft Plan prepared by the Group. The Plan was then approved by the Government and on 19 April 2000 the Plan, entitled The Introduction of the Euro: Ireland's Cash Changeover Plan for 2002, was launched by the Minister for Finance and the Chairperson of the Board.

11. The Cash Changeover Plan  Briefly, the Plan

• outlines what people should do as individuals to make the changeover to the euro as smooth as possible for everyone;
  
  
• recommends that the dual circulation period - that is, the period from 1 January 2002 when euro notes and coins and Irish notes and coins will be in circulation together, with the use of the former increasing and that of the latter decreasing - should end at midnight on Saturday 9 February 2002 (this date is subject to Oireachtas approval - see below);
  
  
• describes how the changeover will be implemented; and
  
  
• outlines the plans of the sectors and individual organisations that will be most closely involved in implementing it.

The organisations involved in drawing up the Plan included in it a specific commitment that they will carry out the changeover to the euro fairly and will seek no advantage from the conversion.

12. Withdrawal of Legal Tender Status from Irish Notes and Coins   The Plan envisages that the dual circulation period will be brought to an end by the withdrawal of legal tender status from Irish notes and coins, which it recommends should be done at midnight on Saturday 9 February 2002. To do so will require an Order to be made by the Minister for Finance under the Economic and Monetary Union Act, 1998: the Order must be approved in draft by each House of the Oireachtas before it is made.

13. Distribution of Cash Changeover Plan  Following publication of the Plan, arrangements were made for widespread distribution of copies via business, trade and professional organisations, public libraries etc, and for printing of the Plan as a document in the information pack of the Forfás EMU Business Awareness Campaign. Arrangements were also put in hand for the printing of a summary version of the Plan in leaflet form, for distribution to every household in the country.

14. Computer Tool for Retailers   Under the Cash Changeover Plan, from 1 January 2002 retailers will charge customers in euro only. They will accept Irish notes and coins until the end of the dual circulation period at midnight on 9 February 2002, but will give change in euro only. For the first few days of the cash changeover particularly, customers will generally be tendering Irish notes and coins. So retailers will need to obtain a float of euro notes and coins in advance of 1 January 2002. Accordingly, the Board commissioned the design of a computer program to help retailers to calculate broadly what float of euro notes and coins they will need. The program is currently undergoing trials with a view to its being made available to retailers on disk.

15. Legislation   The national legislation passed before the launch of the euro on 1 January 1999 was described in the Board's first annual report. In the period of this report, the only national legislation published about the euro is contained in the Copyright and Related Rights Bill, 1999, published by the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. Section 189 of this Bill, which was prepared in consultation with the Secretariat to the Board, deals with copyright in Irish pound notes and coins; in euro notes; in the Irish national face, and in the common face, of euro coins, and in Irish commemorative coins; and with ancillary matters. The section is essentially a restatement of the provisions already existing in Irish law in the Copyright Act, 1963 as amended, most recently by the Economic and Monetary Union Act, 1998. Briefly, the section's effect is to continue the copyright of the Central Bank of Ireland as regards Irish pound notes, and to declare the copyright of the European Central Bank as regards euro notes. In relation to coins, its effect is to continue the copyright of the Minister for Finance in Irish pound coins, in the Irish national face of euro coins, and in Irish commemorative coins, and to declare the copyright of the European Community in the common face of euro coins.

16. Copyright in the Common Face of Euro Coins   As indicated above, copyright in the common face of euro coins belongs to the European Community. In April 2000, by agreement with the Member States that have adopted the euro, the European Commission, acting on behalf of the European Community, assigned copyright in the common face of euro coins to each of those Member States in its national territory. As a result, Ireland now exercises copyright in Ireland in the common face of euro coins. The Assignment Agreement is set out at Appendix 4. As will be seen, the reproduction rules in it consist of a general scheme of authorisation for certain classes of reproduction of the common face design, combined with a blanket prohibition on reproduction on medals and tokens made in metal or on any other object made in metal which might be confused with coins.

Part I: Introduction and Establishment, Tasks and Membership of the Board etc.

Part III: Public Information Activities