In June, The Irish Times revealed 12 Irish finance influencers, with large social media followings, were invited to the Department of Finance for an exclusive briefing on the Government’s proposed Personal Investment Account (PIA).
The as-yet unpublished scheme is aimed at incentivising more Irish households to move their savings from bank or credit union deposit accounts into the investment markets.
While figures suggest people have been assiduously saving, leaving €170 billion on deposit, this episode of Better with Money delves into what the true picture suggests.
After all, Minister for Finance Simon Harris quoted that number when, earlier this year, he revealed he wanted to set up a State investment scheme that would benefit “middle Ireland”.
It is an oft-mentioned but amorphous descriptor of who might benefit from the proposed PIA. Is this the “middle Ireland” that has four, five or even six figures in the bank?
In Annmarie Gaynor’s case, the 70 thousand-plus followers of her @IrishBudgetingMammy account are the latter, with many of them confiding their financial details in Gaynor’s direct messages.
“They’ve a hundred thousand sitting in a savings account because they’ve saved their whole lives. They’re all mid-40s, 50s, you know that age group, but they don’t understand. If I said to them, “Would you invest?” No. That’s for the rich.”
But Cian Carolan of DNG Financial Services encounters other members of “middle Ireland” who appear to be high-income earners on paper, but who struggle to meet bills like their mortgage, childcare and food costs.
The “how” of the scheme is even more of a nebulous concept, with the Minister remaining tight-lipped as to what it would actually involve.
How would it work? Who would administer it? Would it be modelled on the UK’s Individual Savings Account model, otherwise known as an ISA?
Or would it diverge slightly to mirror Sweden’s ISK? What even is Sweden’s ISK?
Would you have to fill out the tax return yourself? The Irish tax system is notoriously complex to navigate for the average consumer.
And that’s assuming the consumer in question is young enough to hear the term “stock market”, without it triggering an Eircom shares-themed Pavlovian response.
Gaynor and Carolan were among the so-called “finfluencers” invited to Harris’s event. So what did they manage to glean from it?
They explain their experience of the briefing, what was said and – perhaps more pertinently – what wasn’t shared, as well as what they believe their followers’ expectations are of the scheme.
This episode is for information purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
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