Jim Higgins
Ceist:130 Mr. Higgins (Mayo) asked the Minister for Finance if savings certificates with An Post will be classified for dormant account purposes. [14608/00]
Written Answers. - Dormant Accounts.
It is intended that savings certificates with An Post will, in principle, be included in the scheme for the transfer of dormant accounts to the care of the State. However, given the long-term nature of investment in these instruments, it is likely that only a small proportion of the amounts in savings certificates is likely to be found to be dormant, as it is envisaged that the dormancy period would only begin to reckon after the end of the initial investment period.
An Post, like the other financial institutions, will be obliged to use its best endeavours to contact the owners of certificates, which have had no customer initiated activity for a specified period, and notify them that their certificates are being considered for possible dormancy status. This, of course, would only happen at the end of the specified dormancy period. It would then be the certificate-holder's responsibility to initiate some form of transaction or acknowledgement of the existence of the certificates within six months to ensure that the funds associated with the certificates were not transferred to the proposed dormant accounts fund at the NTMA.