Tomorrow economic and monetary union (EMU) will start. The single currency, the euro, will come into being and the exchange rates of the 11 EU members, including Ireland, will be irrevocably fixed against it. These rates will be formally adopted by EU finance ministers around lunchtime tomorrow and will be applicable from midnight.

For three years the euro will be available only in cashless form (i.e. for cheques, credit transfers, direct debits).

So pound notes and coins will remain in use. On January 1st, 2002, euro notes and coins will be put into circulation and pound notes and coins will begin to be withdrawn; within six months, at most, and probably less, the changeover to the euro will be complete.

The Euro Changeover Board of Ireland (ECBI) was established last May 5th and includes representatives from organisations representing a wide cross-section of Irish life. It has two basic tasks: to oversee the changeover to the euro and to provide consumer information about it.

The public information campaign began after the May referendums on the Belfast Agreement and the Amsterdam Treaty. In the first phase, in June/July, we sent an information leaflet to every household in the Republic, circulated 80,000 posters showing the euro notes and coins to schools, libraries and public offices and ran a TV, press, and radio advertising campaign.

A subsequent survey, conducted in the second half of July, found that while almost everyone knew the single currency was coming, there was less knowledge about its name and when it starts. Following this, the second phase of the public information campaign included the launch of our website (www.irlgov.ie/ecbi-euro) - which includes a worksheet for primary school children and a quiz for secondary schools - an Aertel page, a public information video, available from public libraries, a further one million information leaflets, a further advertising campaign and a leaflet for teachers.

The board's other task is to oversee the implementation of the changeover. In mid-November, the Minister for Fin ance, Mr McCreevy, published the third edition of Ireland's National Changeover Plan. This set out arrangements to be made by the public sector, including Government department, local authorities, state-sponsored bodies, the Revenue Commissioners, the Central Bank and the National Treasury Management Agency, as well as by private sector bodies such as the banks, building societies and the stock exchange. This plan is available on the ECBI website and on that of the Forfas EMU Business Awareness Campaign. (www.emuaware.forfas.ie) as well as in hard copy from both organisations and is also available in public libraries. An appendix to the plan lists further contact points for information, including a range of website addresses.

What difference will the public see? We have already seen developments connected with the imminent arrival of the euro, including the recent falls in interest rates and the announcement of reductions in the cost of exchange euro zone currencies.

The next few days will be dominated by the irrevocable fixing of the participating currencies against the euro by finance ministers of December 31st; and by the changeover of the financial markets to the euro over the coming weekend so that they will be ready to start trading in euro on Monday next, January 4th. The ECBI will be running an extensive information campaign from mid-January to publicise the rate for the euro against the pound and to help people familiarise themselves with what the euro will be worth.

Helping people build a scale of value for themselves in euro is not just a matter of such campaigns, of course; people need to see the euro in their everyday lives. Already some retailers, using forecast rates for the euro against the pound, have begun to show the euro equivalent of the pound total on bills; no doubt this practice will tend to grow after the conversion rate is fixed. Such dual display will be widespread in the run-up to the introduction of euro notes and coins in 2002.

The public sector will also be using dual display to help the public become familiar with the euro. As the National Changeover Plan says:

online game tickets from the National Lottery will show the euro equivalent beside the Irish pound amount from January, and dual display on scratch card tickets will start as soon after that as printing schedules permit;

from Spring 1999, tax-free allowance (TFA) certificates from the Revenue Commissioners will show annual and weekly/monthly TFA amounts in both Irish pounds and euro;

the ESB, Telecom and An Bord Gais will begin showing the total amount on bills in both Irish pounds and euro during 1999;

Bus Atha Cliath-Dublin Bus will show fare amounts on bus tickets in both Irish pounds and euro from mid1999. Pre-printed tickets from all three companies in the CIE Group (Bus Atha Cliath, Bus Eireann and Iarnrod Eireann) will show fares in both Irish pounds and euro from mid-1999;

during 1999, payslips from Government Departments will begin to show the net pay amount in both Irish pounds and euro. In general, other public sector bodies will do likewise;

television licences and renewal notices will show the licence fee in both Irish pounds and euro as soon as possible in 1999;

the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs will produce a leaflet showing social welfare payment rates in both Irish pounds and euro.

So you can expect to see the euro in a lot of old familiar places from now. And the process will build up, so that by the time we get euro notes and coins in 2002, we should all be euro experts.

Philip Hamell is chairman of the Euro Changeover Board of Ireland