Plan for savings scheme within four months, Simon Harris says

The Tanaiste aims to bring a framework for an incentivised savings scheme to Government “in the first half of this year”.

Simon Harris said he wants to develop the scheme for people who are “locked out” out of “meaningful participation” in investment.

The Finance Minister said: “I fully know there’s lots of families in Ireland under financial pressure, I fully get that.

“But I also know alongside that, there’s about 170 billion euro on deposit in Ireland today. We need to make that money work, not just for the country, not just for the economy, but for our SMEs, but also, crucially, for people, for families, for young people.”

Mr Harris said the retail investment strategy could ensure “personal economic and financial resilience”.

He added: “I will deliver two budgets as Finance Minister in this government, and it’s my intention that this would be an area of priority.”

He said: “I’m talking about people who are not uber wealthy by any manner or means, but people who are trying to put away a few bob at the end of the week, at the end of the month, either for their own futures to perhaps save for a deposit of a house, perhaps for their children’s futures, perhaps just for a rainy day in terms of their own household economy.

“And at the moment, quite frankly, they’re locked out of any meaningful participation in the investment scenario in Ireland, locked out by complexity, locked out by tax rules, locked out by the amount you’d have to invest to be able to benefit in any sort of meaningful way.”

The Tanaiste said he wants to bring the framework of the strategy to Cabinet colleagues “as soon as possible”.

He added: “I’d like to then have a savings and investment forum where we can hear from stakeholders, hear from industry, hear how we get this right, engage with our Central Bank and then be in a position to bring forward proposals, I would hope, in the next Finance Bill.”

Asked if the tax rate would be lower than the capital gains tax, Mr Harris made reference to the budgetary process, and said: “I definitely don’t intend to answer that question in the month of February.”

Speaking to reporters at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels, he added: “But these are the key issues: The complexity around tax, the rate around tax, and indeed, the fact that there aren’t retail products available in our main banks.

“So this is a big piece of work, but it’s a big piece of work that I suppose, really brings to relevance at a domestic level what we’re doing here at a European level.”

Mr Harris said delivering an EU Saving and Investment Union (SIU) would have “huge economic benefits” for the bloc.

Mr Harris said: “We can’t be leading the charge on SIU without making sure that that’s relevant to people in Ireland and that Irish people can benefit from that as well.”