Coalition’s €9bn SSIA ‘voter bribe’

THE Government was last night accused of engineering the biggest voter bribe in history as €9 billion of SSIAs will mature just a month before the likely date of the next general election.

Despite a surge of spending expectations ahead of the first wave of cash from the savings initiative hitting pockets this year, well over half will not come on-stream until April 2007 - weeks before the country is set to go to the polls.

Close to €9bn of SSIA money will mature in that one month, prompting opposition parties to charge the Coalition with blatantly trying to “buy” the next Dáil.