THE Central Bank has put forward the artist, Robert Ballagh, as its entrant for the competition to design the EU's new bank notes. Mr Ballagh designed the current Irish bank notes with their portraits of James Joyce, Daniel O'Connell and Douglas Hyde.

It is understood that Mr Ballagh has been asked to submit designs in a competition launched by the European Monetary Institute (EMI), the Frankfurt body overseeing the transfer from national currencies to the euro.

The EMI is looking for ideas for the design of the seven denominations of the euro bank note - the five, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 notes.

Those entering the competition have been given two design options.

The first, the EMI said, should be a traditional approach on the theme of ages and styles in Europe, to reflect its cultural heritage.

One side of each bank note would show features, or portraits of significant personalities, representing a certain age in history, while the other side would display an architectural feature from the same period.

The other option is a series of notes with an abstract or contemporary design.

The competition will close on September 13th.