The Tánaiste's party campaigned in the run up to the general election to review and remove the eight-year deemed disposal requirement for Irish domiciled funds and life products. As he will be aware - but, just for everyone else's benefit - the system taxes people 38% every eight years on gains they have not made yet. This was reduced slightly in the budget, but it is still regressive and in practice might be pushing ordinary savers into property investments when they could be funding worthwhile projects, especially if a wider number of schemes were to be introduced. I understand that some progress on this matter may be made through the taxation of retail investment. It would be great to get a timeframe as to whether the Government will definitely be doing it this year and if it will be introducing a simple ISA-style investment account, which, I suggest, could be purposed towards providing funding to help build housing or critical infrastructure. Is that being considered?

Sentiment score: 0.51