The phrase "never look a gift-horse in the mouth" seems to have been lost on the general public in Dublin city centre if the reaction to yesterday's starting date for the new Government savings scheme was anything to go by.

With Charlie McCreevy giving away £1 for every £4 saved, one would have expected the banks to be awash with eager savers. Instead, the queues failed to materialise, with some people thinking that yesterday was actually the closing date.

"It is quieter than we thought. A lot of people saw May 1st and thought it was the closing date," said the woman at the special desk set up to help people at one of AIB's city centre branches.

Financial institutions, on the other hand, could never be accused of forsaking gift horses. Most had introduced major marketing campaigns in the past number of weeks to capture a shares of a market that some estimate will be worth as much as £1 billion.

Very little of that seemed to have been squirrelled away in city centre banks yesterday but perhaps the banks themselves had something to do that. Most bank staff were advising customers to give serious thought before making a decision on what do with their money, how much to save and what kind of account to open. They advised them they had a full year - until April 30th, 2002 - to open an account.

"After all, you're putting your money away until 2006/2007, so it's better not to rush into it," said the woman in one National Irish Bank branch.

She was very thorough in her knowledge of what was on offer. No, you could not open more than one account. Yes, there were penalties for withdrawing before the maturity term. No, you could not open accounts for your children. Yes, you must be over 18 and have a personal public service number. And no, you could not borrow against your savings.

Staff at some institutions were a bit unsure about this last question. But they were still taking no chances and recommended that customers should check with their customer service advisers when applying for a loan.

Some branches had set up special help desks, while others were taking a more low-key approach. Staff at both the Irish Nationwide Building Society and Quinn Life said they would take down names and addresses and their head offices would send out details on the scheme.