Irish Central Bank Woos Money Changers With Champagne

by Jason Gorringe, Tax-News.com, London

03 January 2002

Early birds in Ireland hoping to change their old money for euros on the 1st January were greeted with champagne, whiskey, and hot drinks at the Central Bank in Dublin.

Despite the fact that they were the only bank to open on New Years Day, staff were reportedly surprised by the enthusiastic response to the introduction of the euro in Ireland. Over 1,500 transactions were carried out during the day, and staff were obliged to turn people away from the queue by mid-afternoon, such was the demand.

A spokesman for the Central Bank, Neil Whoriskey, told journalists: 'We don't normally have chanpagne in the Central Bank at this time of the morning, but I think we can say that the euro is popular by the looks of it.'

However, he revealed that a large amount of so-called 'mattress money', usually secreted away in order to avoid taxes, appeared to be re-emerging, with many customers wanting to exceed the permitted exchange limit.

'We did have cases with some people with thousands of pounds, at least one customer with more than £3,000.' He commented. 'We had to explain nicely to them that our limit was £500.'

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