The Government's consumer education campaign of the euro will be launched next Wednesday. From Tuesday next, information leaflets will be posted to every home.

The euro changeover board is a consumer education programme. According to its chairperson, Mr Philip Hamell, a senior civil servant in the Department of Finance, it has two basic tasks, overseeing the implementation of the changeover and disseminating public information.

The board, established on May 5th by the Minister for Finance, consists of representatives of a broad range of public bodies, trade unions and business, financial trade bodies, the Central Bank, representatives of Government departments and the European Commission and Parliament.

According to Mr Hamell the most important piece of information for all consumers is that notes and coins will not come into circulation for over three years - in January 2002. But as its logo goes: "the euro changeover board; helping you to make the change" it will also provide information on using the euro for cashless transactions in the transition period.

While the board is running the consumer education campaign, responsibility for helping businesses prepare is still being run by Forfas.

The group has already distributed posters to schools and libraries and following the leaflet drop will conduct further research to find out what more people would like to know.

It will also be running a series of ads on radio and TV as well as in newspapers and magazines over the next fortnight.

The campaign will intensify in the autumn following the enactment of the EMU bill which will set out conditions on the redemption of Government debt and company share capital as well as other technical legal issues.

A web site is also in the process of being designed, but in the meantime the national changeover plan is on the Department of Finance web site at www.irlgov.ie/finance.