Simon Coveney
Question:82 Mr. Coveney asked the Minister for Finance if he has had cause to revise his estimate of the costs of the SSIA scheme over the next four years. [25591/02]
Written Answers. - Special Savings Incentive Scheme.
It is impossible to give a definitive answer as to the eventual cost of the scheme as it is subject to a number of variables such as where participants die, withdraw from the scheme or vary their monthly contributions. Using the existing data and assuming that these variations will broadly cancel each other out, it is estimated that the full year cost to the Exchequer would be in the region of €525 million.
However, anecdotal evidence is that significant numbers of account holders recently raised their monthly contributions, and on that basis the budget tax forecasts prudently assumed a total annual cost of the order of €600 million to 2005. As the cost depends on customer behaviour, about which no-one can be certain, I cannot give a definitive figure of future costs to the Exchequer but obviously the costings are kept under on-going review and analysis.