Sir, – This Government’s latest hike in the deposit interest retention tax (Dirt) rate to 41 per cent is a shameless stab in the back to the small saver. Clearly meant to encourage those with large sums of money to use them for investment purposes to help the economy grow, as a mechanism it fails to appreciate that most of the sums involved are small, deriving from long and hard-earned savings.
The majority of these savings are too small to use for any direct investment so all that is available is the deposit account gaining today little more than 1.5-2 per cent, if that. After Micheal Noonan’s 41 per cent Dirt, an investor will be left with little more than 1 per cent return; not enough to cover inflation. In any event these are “nest eggs” they are not going to be used speculatively. Who would fault that, having regard to the way banks and markets have behaved?
If the Government has any real care for the smaller members of society, perhaps it should implement a scale of Dirt rates, only rising to the 41 per cent for sums in excess of €200,000 but starting at 5 or 10 per cent for sums less than €20,000 euro; or even zero per cent for small sums. This might encourage people to save more.
It might give a badly needed "feel good" shot in the arm and not doing this is what this Government is really good at. We, "the blameless ones" have to pay. – Yours, etc,
REG CHANDLER, FRIAI,
Dublin Road,
Enniskerry, Co Wicklow.