Ahern denies plan to cut back SSIAs

THE Taoiseach Bertie Ahern denied yesterday that there were any plans to cut back on the special savings scheme but the Government was still accused of floating yet another policy change.

Rejecting speculation that Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy will cut back on the SSIA scheme whereby savers get one euro from the Government for every four saved over a five year period, Mr Ahern said the Government’s position had not changed.

“We had this last year, the same argument, and the story ran for four months. The Minister said then and he said it since then that he had no intention of capping or changing or restructuring it and that is still the position,” he said.