{"id":579136,"date":"2026-08-01T17:12:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-01T17:12:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/579136\/"},"modified":"2026-08-01T17:12:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-01T17:12:20","slug":"irish-households-held-e175bn-in-cash-deposits-in-june-as-government-readies-savings-scheme-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/579136\/","title":{"rendered":"Irish households held \u20ac175bn in cash deposits in June as Government readies savings scheme \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Irish households held almost \u20ac175 billion in cash deposits, earning little or no interest, in June.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/central-bank\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/central-bank\/\">Central Bank<\/a> figures show the stock of household deposits rose by \u20ac9 billion (5.4 per cent) to \u20ac174.9 billion in the first six months of 2026.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Ireland has a relatively high proportion of savings in overnight or current accounts which offer interest rates of between zero and 1 per cent, significantly below the rate of inflation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">This means the value of the money is shrinking.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Minister for Finance <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/simon-harris\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/simon-harris\/\">Simon Harris<\/a> is planning to set up a new State-sponsored savings scheme to encourage households to invest in higher-yielding assets. The scheme, which is set to be announced later this year, is expected to carry a flat rate of annual tax.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Government is understood to have been looking at the UK and Swedish models. The latter carries a rate of tax linked to the yield on Swedish government bonds.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Currently, investors in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and other funds pay an exit tax of 38 per cent, which critics say deters investment. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Harris said the aim of the investment account scheme would be to incentivise savers here to move some of the money held on deposit into capital market investments.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Irish plan comes amid a push by the European Commission for EU member states <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/savings-and-investment-union\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/tags\/savings-and-investment-union\/\">to adopt tax-friendly models to encourage individuals to invest<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Central Bank data indicated lending to households increased by \u20ac5.9 billion, or 5.4 per cent, in the year to end of June. Loans for house purchase were the main driver, coming in at \u20ac5.2 billion in the period.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Colm Laird, banking sector lead at audit, tax and consulting firm RSM Ireland, said: \u201cHouseholds continue to build up their cash savings, whilst mortgage lending remains relatively subdued.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cGenerally, Irish households are feeling uncertain about their finances, with the recent increase in oil prices suggesting that fuel and energy costs might rise again this autumn and October\u2019s budget expected to signal a squeeze on the growth of public spending,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \"> \u201cAlthough the data shows that people have never been richer, they don\u2019t feel that way,\u201d Laird said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cNervousness about the cost of living means that many feel happier building a savings buffer and holding back from borrowing or big-ticket purchases,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Irish households held almost \u20ac175 billion in cash deposits, earning little or no interest, in June. Central Bank&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467270,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,4505,61,60,144306,70],"class_list":["post-579136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-central-bank","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-savings-and-investment-union","tag-simon-harris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=579136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}