'That's it now - SSIAs are gone'

The €1 for €4 Government savings scheme is finally over. It's time to take down the posters and count the money pledged by more than 40 per cent of the adult population. Bank of Ireland estimates that its customers' commitments to the scheme will generate balances of more than €3.5 billion when the scheme matures in 2006-07.

AIB is "conservatively" estimating that it will have more than €4 billion in maturing funds in five years, including savings, bonus and interest. At close of business yesterday, AIB had opened almost 300,000 accounts, some 30,000 of those in the final two days.

While a last-minute rush was anticipated for April, the scale of the rush exceeded all expectations. Some institutions reported that almost half of all savings scheme accounts were opened in the final month of the scheme.

Human nature being what it is, the demand for the scheme, which was open for 12 months, continued until the final day.

Several institutions stopped accepting new applications for the scheme or limited their service to existing customers last week or earlier in April. On the closing day of the scheme, some last-minute savers tried several places before they found an institution open for business.

"This is my third attempt today to open an account, I've already been to AIB and Ulster Bank," said Mr Jonathan Parkhill, standing in the one-hour queue in EBS Building Society in Westmoreland Street, Dublin, yesterday.

An engineering student from Wexford, Mr John Pym decided two weeks ago to get into the scheme, having been convinced by friends. "I'm putting in the minimum amount and might increase it later. I think it's a good idea for savers but I wonder if we might end up paying for it some other way ourselves."

Other final day applicants had tried to open an account before. With evident relief, members of staff in Bank of Ireland, College Green, started to dismantle the special stand dedicated to the scheme one hour before the bank closed for business yesterday. As one manager put it to his colleague: "That's it now. It's gone, if anyone else asks for it - it's gone."