Irish churches fear euro effect

Some hope the changeover will encourage people to donate more money

DUBLIN, Ireland -- The Roman Catholic church has voiced concern that its Sunday collections will suffer when Ireland switches to the single European currency next year.

Ireland is the only country joining the euro whose national currency has a base unit greater in value than the euro -- at current exchange rates, one punt is worth 1.27 euros.

The church is concerned that if parishioners donate one euro instead of one punt, its collections could plunge by about 20 percent in value.

Father Rory O'Sullivan told the Irish media: "It is worrying if people who attend church give one euro instead of one pound. We will be trying to encourage people to go with two euros."

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Church publications have been stressing the need for priests to spread the message that the euro will be worth significantly less than the coin it replaces.

The finance committee of the Dublin archdiocese has sent out a letter to all parishes explaining the introduction of the new currency.

The letter says the committee is considering devising handouts to help congregations convert their weekly contributions into an appropriate amount in euros.

"They (the committee) are confident that if the people fully understand the relative euro value of their normal Irish pound contributions they will continue to give to collections with generosity," the newsletter said.

But Father Tom Hayes told Reuters news agency he was more worried about the impact on volunteers, whose work adding up the collections will be doubled while both currencies remain legal tender for several weeks until the punt is withdrawn.

"We're not as prepared as the corporate sector... but that's the nature of the volunteer sector," Hayes told Reuters.

Hayes said by the time the euro is introduced, he thought most parishioners would know it was worth less than a punt -- and some might even give the church more.

"There is also a two euro coin which is a new denomination, and if there is a percentage of people who are very tuned in and they opt to put in the two euro, I think that will offset the number of people who slip back to just the one euro coin," he told the news agency.

"I would honestly expect that by Easter time things will have leveled out again," Hayes added.