Exchequer Returns
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-29
============================================================

Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

I very much agree that time will tell is a fair analysis of the situation, and I appreciate that the Deputy does not have an ideological or principled objection to it. I also appreciate that this House will want to get the detail right and will want to tease through that.
I fully accept that we are living through a cost-of-living crisis and I fully accept that that it is real, but alongside that there is data from the CSO published only in the past month that shows that Irish people are continuing to save in many cases. They are small amounts, and this is not the Government or the Oireachtas telling them to open an investment account, but for those people trying to set aside very small amounts and a few bob, we want them to be able have the same opportunities, and quite frankly they do not at the moment because the tax system has been too complex. People have had to be a tax expert or a wealthy person to be able to avail of investments. Over time I might be able to convince the Deputy that this is something that the labour movement and the Government can align on in terms of it actually being something that is fundamentally good for ordinary workers.
However, I fully accept that this is not in any way being put forward by the Government as a response to the cost-of-living crisis but more actually to building up economic resilience over time for households.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-29