SIMON HARRIS WANTS to incentivise savings and investment in Ireland, admitting that Ireland is “laggards at a European level” in relation to investments.

On Wednesday, the Fine Gael leader and Finance Minister told his parliamentary party at Leinster House that there is €170 billion on deposit in financial institutions in Ireland.

This money is mainly held in traditional savings accounts that offer low interest rates, despite rising inflation. 

Harris said the coalition is looking at publishing a roadmap on what a strategy to incentivise Irish people to save and invest might look like; without committing to any one measure, the Minister mentioned tackling issues like deemed disposal, or perhaps having lower tax rates for a certain amount of money saved or invested.

“I feel extraordinarily strongly about this,” Harris said. “Even though lots of families are facing financial challenge, I don’t doubt that, the figures still show that there’s lots of people putting away small sums of money, trying to put away a few bob for either their future, to buy a house, for their kids’ future, for their kids’ education.

“And I’m not talking, by the way, about uber wealthy people here.

“I’m talking about everyday people who work hard, the nurse, the teacher, the guard, the public servant, the small business owner trying to put away a little bit of money for their own rainy day, for their own future challenges and opportunities, and at the moment that money isn’t earning them anything, quite frankly.”

The two budgets Harris is to deliver in his role as Finance Minister will approach this as an “absolute priority”, he promised.

“It’s a complex area, I’ve got to be honest. It involves tax. It involves how much somebody can put into an account potentially tax free.”

He said he’s been examining the Canadian and Swedish models on investments.

The main issue surrounding Ireland’s inability to make a significant return on investments is due to something called deemed disposal, which is a tax on fund gains, which is applied every eight years. The rate is a whopping 38% on gains (slightly reduced in Budget 2026, from 41%).

• Why is private investing so complicated in Ireland?

Asked if these mooted changes to benefit those who have savings would promote inequality, Harris said: “The inequality exists today.

“The only people who can actually make a bit of money on their investments are the uber wealthy. I want the middle classes to have an opportunity here.

“I want to squeezed middle who are putting money in the post office or the credit union or the bank account to actually make money and not lose money in relation to that.

“This is about making their money work for them.”

He acknowledged that investing is a risk, but said many people were locked out of investing in Ireland.

A Social Democrats’ idea that the State use the money on deposit in Ireland to fund the construction of housing was described by Harris as “an interesting idea, in fairness”, when it was put to him.

Elsewhere in the wide ranging interview, Harris said he thinks Ireland should fulfil its fixtures with Israel in the Uefa Nations League, that he and the Taoiseach get on well despite rumbles of alleged disquiet between them, and that Government will work with the Rotunda Hospital after it had planning overturned for a critical care unit.