Accounts
The two balances a member may hold
A member may hold foreign currency they brought in themselves, and may assign the residual units issued to them for the period. The two follow different rules, and the cooperative keeps them apart on the books and on the teller slip.
The brought-in balance
This is euro that already belonged to the member: wages from a posting abroad, a fee for work done for a foreign institution, a gift carried home or receipts from a visitor. It sits in Ireland, in an account segregated from the cooperative's own funds, and it stays euro until the member spends it.
Inside the Republic the balance purchases no good. Food, water, sanitation, housing, energy, care, transport and communication are furnished free at the point of use, and no teller accepts euro for anything the plan supplies. The balance covers purchases that cross the border and the member's own use while travelling.
The translation entitlement
Every resident receives the same allocation of residual units at the opening of each period, and the units expire at its close. They are personal: a purported transfer is void and extinguishes the unit transferred. The cooperative therefore takes an assignment from the member holding the units, and takes no assignment from another person on that member's behalf.
An assignment of units is a request that the cooperative make a purchase, paid from the common export pool. The units reach no foreign seller and become euro at no point.
| Question | Brought-in balance | Residual units |
|---|---|---|
| Buy goods abroad through the cooperative | Yes | Yes |
| Buy goods inside the Republic | No | Only minor discretionary goods, in the published quantities |
| Be withdrawn as cash for travel | Yes, on notice, up to the period limit | No |
| Pass to another member | No | No. A purported transfer extinguishes the unit |
| Be lent, pledged or used as security | No | No |
| Earn interest | No. Interest received on safeguarded funds goes to restoration | No |
| Carry over to the next period | Yes | No. Units expire at the close of the period |
| Be bought using the other balance | No | No |
Why euro cannot buy units
The unit is issued equally to every resident, and an issue that varied by contribution, by conduct, by function or by office would be void. A member able to buy units with euro would hold more of them by holding more euro, which defeats the equality of the issue.
The prohibition applies to conversion in both directions: a member cannot sell units for euro.
The ceilings
Two ceilings apply to every request. The personal ceiling is what the member holds. The collective ceiling is physical: the materials and emissions the goods carry, counted against the ecological budget of the Republic on the same terms as domestic production.
| Limit | Figure | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cash withdrawal from a brought-in balance | 2,500 EUR | Per period, on five days' notice, for travel |
| Single request without a second signature | 1,200 EUR | Above this a second officer of the cooperative signs |
| Imports of this cooperative, materials | 840 t | Fixed by the Ecological Budget Authority for the period |
| Imports of this cooperative, emissions | 2,100 t CO2e | Counted against the cumulative budget of the Republic |
| Residual units, per resident | 640 | Issued equally, expiring at the close of the period |
Where the collective ceiling is close to being reached, the cooperative publishes the fact, and requests queue in the order they arrived. Repair parts take priority in that queue, on the ground that a part keeping a machine in use costs less in materials than a replacement.
Charges
Four euro for handling a request, regardless of its value. Carriage and duty at cost, shown on the slip before a member accepts. No charge for holding a balance, for opening one or for closing one, and no margin on the rate.
The reference rate is the daily rate published by the European Central Bank, applied as published. A spread on the rate would amount to trading currency for gain, which the licence in the Republic excludes.
Any member may see the cooperative's own accounts, its dealings with its bank in Dublin, and the auditor's report, at any teller or on the page about the cooperative.