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The Tanaiste and Minister for Finance Simon Harris has spent the last six months promoting an investment account system to the Irish public that he has still not yet revealed the precise details of. Though a number of parliamentarians have asked the Tanaiste for clarification and information on these new personal investment accounts, he has not indulged in their requests. At the surface level Harris’ motivations behind creating these accounts is certainly correct. Ireland does not have a culture of investing, and that leaves people missing out on financial opportunities to grow their savings. Unfortunately good will is simply not enough to deliver on such a fiscal programme, and the Tanaiste has hitherto dismissed or passified any structural criticisms of the Irish investment sector and the policies which hamper Irish retail investment.
Ireland’s savings conundrum is an issue which the government could genuinely fix with the necessary policy expertise. As of June this year, Irish households held approximately €175 billion in cash deposits, having grown by €9 billion (5.4 percent) in the first half of 2026 alone. However, indicative of the broken fiscal incentive structure in Ireland, most of that money is situated in current accounts and earns little interest, if any at all. The consequence is that Irish citizens with their savings parked in bank accounts with low interest rates are having the value of their savings whittled down year on year by inflation with no growth opportunities
The foreign observer might suggest that Irish citizens choose to invest their savings instead, but that is exactly where the issue with Irish retail investment policies currently stands. Ireland was until recently the only country in the European Union which operated a deemed disposal regime. Ostensibly labelled by the Department of Finance as a tax avoidance measure, deemed disposal operates as a tax on total investment value every eight years, regardless of whether a person’s stock value has increased or crashed. The consequence is that the Irish investment sector has a built-in disincentive to invest in the stock market. It should come as no surprise then that the preferred form of investment in Ireland then is property. No clearer is Ireland’s cascading series of government mismanagement than in this case. With the country experiencing a cost of living crisis and a chronic housing crisis, they have not only neglected to divert investment in Ireland out of the property sector into other industries, but they have also continually passed legislation that despite its stated aim has only reduced the supply of rental accommodation in the country.
Ireland has, as of this year a household net wealth figure of €1.4 trillion, the highest figure the country has ever reached. Yet the composition of that wealth is overwhelmingly concentrated in the property market, with the wealthiest ten percent of households holding close to half the total amount of wealth. Indicative of the lack of retail investment supports and policy barriers like deemed disposal, is research published by Financial Services Ireland in June. Financial Services Ireland found that while roughly seventy percent of Irish adults posess savings accounts, only a measly 16 percent own shares. Meanwhile that same research found that one in twenty Irish adults do not hold any other form of financial investment, with a shocking thirty percent of respondents claiming that although they could afford to invest their money they didn’t have any idea of where to invest it. So the Tanaiste’s assertion that Ireland lacks an investment culture and needs greater financial literacy is absolutely true, that much is indisputable.
Since taking on the role of Minister for Finance in November 2025, Harris has taken on a portfolio which he has to this date held little experience in operating. Before the departure of Paschal Donohoe, the former Minister for Finance, for the World Bank created a portfolio opening in the Department of Finance, Fine Gael’s finance administration was operationalised by the most professional elements of the party. It comes as no surprise then that Harris has sought to create a flagship programme for himself to distinguish his credentials as Finance Minister from the herd. The personal savings and investments accounts are posed to be his signature economic project, but in his insistent advertising of the project to the public he has forgotten to indicate exactly how the accounts will operate.
The Irish public clearly have an appetite for such accounts as well. According to the public service broadcaster RTE, 79 percent of adults are interested in the new scheme. However the columnist Gerard Howlin rightfully criticised the Tanaiste for his pattern of repeatedly announcing the programme before details were supplied to the public. To his count, in a two week period this February the Tanaiste announced the programe in no less than four distinct occasions. Howlin’s description of Harris as a “verbal maximalist” is certainly apt. Now in August details of what the accounts will actually entail have still not been provided, with an expected October Budget legislative reveal to parliament and the public all in one go, leaving out time for vital public debate as to the precise model which the accounts will pursue. There could be no greater disaster for the Irish public and Harris’ political career than for these investment accounts to fail, but he has not done his due diligence to discuss these ideas with the rest of the country at all.
The issue is not that a policy with positive fiscal ramifications for the Irish public is taking time to design. It is completely defensible for the government to take its time to make sure it gets the programme right. The serious underlying issue is that the programme risks becoming part of Irish political pageantry rather than a policy standing on its own merit. It is here that the debate between whether the Swedish ISK model or the British ISA model are the best systems to inspire an Irish personal investment account has become unusually frustrating. Throughout the year the Department of Finance and the Tanaiste have kept their lips sealed on any discussion of what the accounts would actually offer to the public and toyed with references here and there to the media about models they were investigating. Yet in this incessant commitment to obscurity, Irish people are no better off. The numbers speak for themselves, 79 percent of adults are interested in these new investment accounts, but without hard figures we are all left with just a vague concept that merely sounds like it might be a good idea.
The deeper problem with Irish fiscal policy that has still not been addressed by the new investment accounts system is, of course, deemed disposal. The government is clearly aware that the existing rules governing ETFs and investment funds in the country are not compatible with a modern investment economy, Harris himself has acknowledged deemed disposal is too high, and the State’s 2026 Budget slashed the exit tax due under deemed disposal from 41 percent to 38 percent. That still does not address the fact that Capital Gains Tax is 33 percent, and the 38 percent figure appears arbitrary and without practical justification.
Creating a new privileged wrapper for investments is certainly a step in the right direction but there has been no answer from the government whether deemed disposal will apply to money and investments placed into these accounts or not. The bottom line of any personal investment accounts or reformation of the Irish investment sector is simply that it is not possible without the removal of deemed disposal.