Many of AIB's 400,000 account holders are still waiting to receive a euro chequebook, with some unable to get temporary ones to tide them over because of a shortage at branches.

AIB has apologised for the delay and said customers should receive chequebooks by the weekend. A spokesman said there should be enough supplies of temporary chequebooks available at branches to tide them over.

A number of the bank's customers have told The Irish Times, however, that many branches had run out of them. In one case, a customer was advised by their branch simply to backdate a cheque issued in pounds to make a payment, but the bank has said this is not official policy.

The bank appears to have only printed euro chequebooks for customers who wrote a substantial number of cheques last year. Hundreds of thousand of chequebooks have since been printed, and the bank is working to distribute them to personal customers. Larger orders for chequebooks from its branch network have compounded the logistics issue of meeting customer needs.

Most customers who contacted this newspaper have been annoyed at being told their chequebook was in the post when many had not even been printed.

It is likely that customers who may not have used chequebooks in the past 12 months could have to wait a few more weeks before they can write a euro cheque.