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.

Fianna Fáil dismissed the claims as “disingenuous”, pointing out that Fine Gael had long supported the initiative.

Irish Life marketing manager Brendan McEvoy said there was a widespread misconception over exactly when SSIAs would really hit the economy.

“Despite what many people might suggest, 2007 will be the more significant year for SSIA maturities.”

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has consistently made it clear he wants the Government to complete a full term in office, meaning a general election in May next year.

Fine Gael’s finance spokesman Richard Bruton accused the Coalition of engineering a “feel good” re-election strategy.

“The Government thinks it can rely on the biggest bribe in electoral history to try and win a third term. It is only fooling itself if it thinks it can bribe the electorate with their own money,” he said.

Labour leader Pat Rabbitte was equally suspicious over the timing of the release of the vast bulk of SSIA cash.

“The Government is expecting that the SSIA payments are going to create a goodwill factor for itself. However, I expect that the vast majority of people will realise that the payments they will be getting will consist in the main of money they have carefully put aside themselves,” he said.

Fianna Fáil dismissed the attacks, pointing to the long history of the initiative.

“These claims are ridiculous. The scheme was introduced prior to the last election and applications for it also closed before the last election. To suggest it was introduced to win an election two elections down the line is very strange,” a party spokeswoman said.

Mr McEvoy said equity-based SSIAs were continuing to beat the performance of deposit-based products leading to a bigger return for those set to mature next year.

“For SSIAs maturing in May of this year, we currently expect equity products to outperform deposit products by approximately €600.

“If current growth rates continue for the next 18 months or so, we expect that gap to rise to about €1,000 for products due to mature in April of 2007.”