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38 1998

ECONOMIC AND MONETARY UNION ACT, 1998

Chapter IV

Withdrawal of Legal Tender Notes and Coins

Calling in of coins.

15. —(1) Subject to subsection (2), the Minister may by order call in coins of any particular composition, date or denomination—

(a) issued under the repealed enactments, or

(b) issued under the Decimal Currency Acts, 1969 to 1990, or

(c) issued under this Act, or

(d) circulating in the State and issued by one or more of the other participating Member States which are comparable to coins issued under this Act,

and the Minister may by order amend or revoke an order under this section.

(2) The Minister shall not make an order under this section which relates to matters within the competence of the European Central Bank by or under paragraph 2 of Article 105a of the Treaty except with the consent of that Bank.

(3) The following shall apply in respect of every order under subsection (1):

(a) the order shall provide for its coming into operation on a particular date (in this subsection referred to as the “withdrawal date”) not being earlier than 6 months after the date of its making,

(b) the order shall be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made and, if a resolution annulling the order is passed by either such House before the withdrawal date, the order shall be annulled accordingly.

(4) Section 12 of the Act of 1969 is hereby repealed.

(5) In this section “repealed enactments” means the Coinage Act, 1926 , (including that Act as amended by the Emergency Powers (No. 140) Order, 1942, and by sections 58 and 60 of the Central Bank Act, 1942 ) or the Coinage Act, 1950 .

Redemption of coins.

16. —The Act of 1969 is hereby amended by the substitution of the following for section 11 :

“11.—The Central Bank may, if it thinks fit so to do, redeem coins—

(a) issued under the repealed enactments, or

(b) issued under the Decimal Currency Acts, 1969 to 1990, or

(c) issued under the Economic and Monetary Union Act, 1998, or

(d) circulating in the State and issued by one or more of the other participating Member States which are comparable to coins issued under the Economic and Monetary Union Act, 1998,

and all sums required for that purpose shall be defrayed out of the general fund of the Central Bank and debited therein to the currency reserve.”.

Prohibition of melting down of coins.

17. Section 15 of the Act of 1969 shall apply to coins issued under this Act and coins circulating in the State and issued by one or more of the other participating Member States which are comparable to coins issued under this Act.

Redemption of legal tender notes.

18. Section 121 of the Central Bank Act, 1989 , is hereby amended by the addition of the following subsection after subsection 3:

“(4) The Central Bank may continue to redeem Irish pound notes issued under section 44 of the Central Bank Act, 1971 , or any other note which was, immediately prior to the earlier operative date (within the meaning assigned by section 9 of the Economic and Monetary Union Act, 1998) or, where there is no such date, the 30th day of June, 2002, a legal tender note in the State and issued under the Currency Act, 1927 , or under any subsequent Act.”.

Calling in of legal tender notes.

19. Section 122 of the Central Bank Act, 1989 , is hereby amended by the substitution of “with the authority of the European Central Bank and subject to such conditions as to time, place, manner and order of presentation as the Bank thinks fit” for “subject to such time, place, manner and order of presentation as it thinks fit” and the said section, as so amended, is set out in the Table to this section.

TABLE

122.—The Bank may, with the authority of the European Central Bank and subject to such conditions as to time, place, manner and order of presentation as the Bank thinks fit, call in any legal tender notes issued under this Act, or under the Currency and Central Bank Acts, 1927 to 1971, or any of those Acts, on the terms of paying for such notes on presentation in the same manner as if they were being redeemed under section 121.