Many accounts will become officially dormant on Sunday and funds that remain, writes Una McCaffrey.

Easter Sunday will mark the end of an era for thousands of bank, building society and post office accounts around the Republic, as new legislation kicks in to mark them officially "dormant".

To qualify for the dormant label, an account must have been left unattended by its holder for 15 years or more. Department of Finance estimates, compiled late last year, set the cumulative value of these accounts at about €178 million.

Several months on, a few additional euros have probably landed on top of that figure.

The point of taking the time to separate dormant accounts from their active counterparts, and in setting this Sunday's deadline, is that the Government wants the millions of unused money to make its way back into the economy. Ideally, this would be achieved through the rightful account-holders coming back to claim their cash - it is for this reason that financial institutions will soon be making attempts to contact their officially dormant customers, at least those who hold €100 or more.

The remainder, including customers who have moved from their last-known address or have specifically asked for no correspondence to be sent, will have to make do with newspaper advertisements and other publicity designed to alert them to their riches.

Since factors such as changed addresses, lack of knowledge about the account's existence and plain oversight are likely to be at play, the chances of all the dormant money being disbursed in this way are slim. To address this eventuality, the Government has come up with an alternative home for any unclaimed funds: its own coffers.

If an account designated as dormant on Sunday is not reactivated by its owner before the end of March 2003, the money it contains will automatically be transferred to the care of the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA).

It will then be used "to fund programmes and projects designed to assist the people who are disadvantaged in our society", according to the Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs, Mr Ahern.

The process will begin with the newspaper advertisements - the Irish Bankers' Federation and Irish Mortgage & Savings Association, for example, will be placing advertisements that define dormant accounts and publicise a helpline number for interested parties. Other institutions, such as An Post, will do the same.

Information booklets on the subject will then begin to appear in credit institutions, and forms will be available to anyone who believes that they have a claim to any of the dormant money. This group could include the heirs of dormant account-holders who have died. As soon as the institutions involved have had a chance to collate the names and addresses of the people whose accounts are dormant (the final list can only be drawn up after Sunday), letters will begin to be issued to the affected parties to explain how the funds can be accessed.

AIB plans to reach this stage at the end of May, while Bank of Ireland expects to do so earlier that month.

All institutions have invested significant time and effort in the dormancy process and, as pointed out by Bank of Ireland group compliance manager Mr Dermot Mullen, are aware that "it's clearly to the bank's benefit to reactivate accounts".

The level of interest in the dormant money is difficult to estimate, according to Mr Mullen, but he says that publicity is likely to generate "a high level of queries".

A spokeswoman for An Post, the home of many small First Communion and birthday deposits, is urging parties who believe they have a claim on a dormant account to follow the appropriate channels rather than creating "a stampede in their local post office". An Post is expecting to issue about 100,000 letters, after approximately €50 million in accounts becomes dormant on Sunday.

And it doesn't stop there; a set of accounts will become dormant every year from now on, as another 15-year period ends. There is also the possibility of funds that have been transferred to the NTMA being called back by their rightful owner at a distant point in the future since, even after the transfer occurs, the right of ownership remains with the original depositor.

For the moment, however, the best thing the consumer can do is wait by the letter-box to see what treasure lands on the mat over the next few months.