The rollout of Rounding has been confirmed for Wednesday 28 October 2015. The Central Bank has assumed responsibility for the project, at the request of the Department of Finance.
The key features of Rounding are:
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Rounding will be conducted on a voluntary basis
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1c and 2c coins will remain legal tender
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Rounding will apply only to cash payments
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The total amount of any bill will be rounded down or up to the nearest 5c.
The bill can be rounded up or down, as follows:
- a transaction costing €10.21 or €10.22 would be rounded to €10.20
- a transaction costing €10.23 or €10.24 would be rounded to €10.25
- a transaction costing €10.26 or €10.27 would be rounded to €10.25
- a transaction costing €10.28 or €10.29 would be rounded to €10.30
Two individual items priced at €10.99 and €3.49 respectively would remain at these prices, although the change on the total bill (€14.48), if €15.00 was tendered would be rounded down from 52c to 50c.
Three individual items priced at €2.99, €4.49 and €8.13 respectively would remain at these prices, although though the change on the total bill (€15.61), if €20.00 was tendered, would be rounded up from €4.39 to €4.40.
As at 12 June 2015 1,096,853,216 2c coins have been issued into circulation in Ireland amounting to €21,937,064.32. 1,384,491,236 1c coins have been issued into circulation in Ireland amounting to €13,844,912.36.
A 1 cent coin costs 1.65c to produce while 2 cent coin costs 1.94c.
Six EU Member States have already adopted a symmetrical rounding policy; The Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Hungary and Belgium.
