OPINION OF THE EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK
of 1 February 2002
at the request of the Irish Department of Fina nce on a draft amendment to the Economic and
Monetary Union Act 1998 
(CON/2002/7)
1. On 11 January 2002 the European Central Bank  (ECB) received a request from the Irish
Department of Finance for an ECB opinion on a draft amendment to the Economic and
Monetary Union Act 1998. On 25 January 2002 th e ECB received an updated draft of the
amendment.
2. The ECBs competence to deliver an opi nion is based on Article 2 of Council
Decision 98/415/EC of 29 June 1998 on the consultation of the European Central Bank by
national authorities regarding draft legislative provisions1, as the draft amendment contains
provisions concerning a national central bank and currency matters. In accordance with the first
sentence of Article 17.5 of the Rules of Procedur e of the European Central Bank, this opinion
has been adopted by the Governing Council of the ECB.
3. The draft amendment makes provision for the payment into the Irish Governments Exchequer
by the Central Bank of Ireland (CBI), at the di rection of the Minister for Finance, of (a) the
accrued amount of the proceeds of the issue of coin paid into the CBIs general fund and
carried therein to the credit of the CBIs curr ency reserve under various legislative enactments,
plus (b) the accrued amount of the proceeds of th e melting down of coins carried to the credit of
the CBIs currency reserve, less (c) the accrued amount of sums required for the provision,issuance and redemption of coin, which are defray ed out of the CBIs general fund and debited
therein to the CBIs currency reserve under such  enactments. The amounts to be paid into the
Exchequer would be calculated in a manner dete rmined by the Minster for Finance, after
consultation with the CBI. The draft amendment also takes account of the possibility that the
net income from the issue of coin might be less th an the sum required to be defrayed out of the
CBIs general fund and debited therein to its currency reserve in respect of the provision ofcoins or in respect of the redemption of coins (i ncluding euro coins circulating in Ireland and
issued by other Member States), in which cas e the Minister for Finance would be required to
advance the balance to the CBIs general fund.
                                                          
1 OJ L 189, 3.7.1998, p. 42.
24. The ECB notes that the effect of this amendment would be to remove from the CBIs balance
sheet that portion of its capital and reserves that  is currently represented by the cumulative net
proceeds to date from the issue of coin, whic h accounted for over 20% of the total capital and
reserves (excluding revaluation account balances) reflected on the balance sheet as at31 December 2000, as well as the net proceeds from the issue of coin in the future. The ECB
notes that this change in the balance sheet treatme nt of coins issued by the Minister for Finance
is consistent with the accounting treatment of eu ro coins issued by other participating Member
States in accordance with Article 106 of the Tr eaty. It is understood that the proceeds will be
applied towards the funding of the Irish Gove rnments required contribution to the Irish
National Pension Reserve Fund. In principle, the ECB has no objections to this particular
amendment. 
5. The ECB confirms that it has no objection to the competent national authorities making this
opinion publicly available at their discretion.
Done at Frankfurt am Main on 1 February 2002.
The President of the ECB
[signed]
Willem F. DUISENBERG