Holds foreign currency a member brought in
Examples include wages earned from working abroad or gifts from relatives. The balance stays in euro, safeguarded in Ireland, and it buys nothing inside the Republic.
Buying what the Republic does not make
The cooperative buys abroad on behalf of its members: a phone built to be repaired, a spare part for a laboratory instrument or a licence for a game whose seller cannot operate here.
Four steps to membership and a first request
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Joining at a communal office
Membership is open to every resident and is free of charge. On proof of residence the account is opened and the member number is issued on the same day.
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Stating the request
A request names the thing, the seller and the reason domestic supply is insufficient. Where a domestic equivalent exists and is available, the request is refused with reasons.
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Two ceilings are checked
The first is personal: the residual units a member holds for the period, or the foreign currency already standing to their account. The second is collective: the materials and emissions the import carries, counted against the ecological budget of the Republic.
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Payment and delivery
Payment leaves an account held in Ireland. Goods clear customs at Lindoma and travel on by rail. A licence or a key arrives by post to the communal office.
A practical example
A member asks for a Fairphone 6, sold in the euro area for 599.00 EUR. The teller prints the slip below. Its left half records what the member assigns, and its right half what the cooperative pays from its account in Dublin.
Republic side
262 units
- Residual units for the period
- 640
- Assigned to this request
- 262
- Embodied materials
- 18.4 kg
- Embodied emissions
- 41 kg CO2e
Euro side
621.50 EUR
- Goods
- 599.00 EUR
- Carriage and duty
- 18.50 EUR
- Handling
- 4.00 EUR
- Currency margin
- 0.00 EUR
The units expire at the close of the period whether they are used or left standing. They obtain no good that the plan supplies free of charge, and they reach no seller. The cooperative pays, and the member receives the goods.
What the cooperative does
Buys physical goods abroad
Every item is catalogued with its mass and embodied emissions, which count against the ecological budget.
Pays for digital goods and games
Storefronts that cannot operate in the Republic are paid by the cooperative, which passes the licence or the key to the member with the terms in writing.
Takes in export receipts
An exporting cooperative pays its foreign receipts into the common pool, which funds the purchases above.
What the cooperative declines
- Converting euro into residual units. The units are issued equally to every resident and cannot be bought.
- Moving a balance from one member to another, lending against it, or paying interest upon it.
- Holding a currency for gain. Currency is used to complete a purchase and held no longer than the payment takes.
- Taking in money whose source a member cannot show. The origin of every incoming sum is recorded, as Irish law requires of any payment institution.
Where member balances are held
Member balances sit in a segregated account at a credit institution in Dublin, apart from the cooperative's own funds. Where the cooperative fails, those balances belong to the members and form no part of its estate. The arrangement is inspected annually and the auditor's report is published in full.
The licence, the two supervisors and the governance of the cooperative are set out in detail, together with the legal basis on each side of the border.