McGrath hopes his new investment plan will revive FF’s reputation for innovation

“We need to give people more choice with their savings and investments and the opportunity to get a better return on investment. There are also chances to use this vast amount of savings more productively” – Michael McGrath

Back in an Ireland of “auld money”, when we also had “auld politics”, there was a strong, not always accurate, view that innovative successes only came via Fianna Fáil. There were many examples to back this credo – be it true or false. Take Charlie Haughey’s 1967 free travel scheme for pensioners, implemented against strong civil service advice but which persists to this day and has been emulated in other jurisdictions. Over half a century on, it is perhaps the daddy of all good examples of thinking outside the box.

Another Fianna Fáil Charlie, and an enemy of Haughey’s, Charlie McCreevy, also broke new ground in boom-time 2001 with a savings incentive scheme in a spendthrift era when it was supposedly chic to jet to Paris and/or Rome for lunch and fly home that same evening.

McCreevy’s Special Saving Incentive Accounts (SSIAs) required money be invested for five years, and say somebody saved IR£50 a month over that term, the total would be IR£3,000. Revenue then added IR£750, giving a total return, after tax and including interest, of around IR£4,050, and a total gain of IR£1,050. The Irish nation bought into that one in numbers and its simplicity was key.

Now, before supporters of other political parties – especially those who have spent a long time supporting Fianna Fáil’s sworn rivals – begin spluttering in fury, let’s redefine some terms here. Let’s also recall that “innovative Fianna Fáil” also gifted the nation some real turkeys in its time, such as the 1930s “economic war,” and giveaway election promises in 1977 which brought the country to the brink of economic collapse.

Those are matters for history. But the banking, building and economic collapse of 2008, also with Fianna Fáil at the helm, remains a strong memory for many voters.

The belief in “innovative Fianna Fáil” is also undeniably, at least in part, rooted in folklore. But folklore has a recurring and sometimes strong role in politics.

Remember the immortal pay-off line from the newspaper editor in John Ford’s epic western movie The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance? The editor is justifying not printing new facts about who really did kill the ruthless outlaw, and instead sticking to the legend so beloved of the public. “This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend,” the newspaperman says. That phoney legend also launched a successful political career.

Am I now printing legends? Well perhaps, but only to make a point.

I am also reminded that Fianna Fáil founder Éamon de Valera liked the name of his new party in the 1920s in part because it was hard to pin it down in translation into English, giving it a somewhat mythological air and a certain skill with legends.

Granted, the once and long-time “natural party of government” has taken quite a fall from its glory days, with opinion polls nowsaying just over one in six voters are ready to back it at the next election.

I was intrigued to hear party leader Micheál Martin being interviewed on radio to mark the 20th anniversary of his workplace smoking ban as health minister. That smoking ban saved an otherwise underachieving four-year stint in charge of health – including the recanting of an election promise to end queues.

It was, the interviewer said, an example of “thinking outside the box”.

Did the Fianna Fáil leader have another such surprise, even one which might boost his party’s fortunes any time soon? Martin clearly had not thought that one through, or he was saving his surprises for a time closer to the election action.

But the current Fianna Fáil Finance Minister Michael McGrath has shown that the ability to think outside the box on policy has not deserted the party.

Election fever is building, with the European Parliament and local council votes due two weeks from next Friday, on June 7, and Dáil elections a maximum 10 months off.

Most talk is about bribing the voters with their own tax money – but McGrath is also thinking more laterally.

He says there is €150bn in savings “sleeping” in banks, post offices, credit unions, insurance policies and in other funds elsewhere. The average citizen is getting little more than zilch in return for much of this and the economy is deprived of cash which could be used more effectively.

The Finance Minister is waiting on an expert report expected to highlight mismatches in the current complex taxation regime which make investing money less attractive for the average person.

He told this writer that he expects to have the expert report soon and that it will focus on potential benefits and losses to the national coffers. But he signalled that changes to tax on investments are likely to result, following budget preparation discussions with his cabinet colleagues.

“We need to give people more choice with their savings and investments and the opportunity to get a better return on investment. There are also chances to use this vast amount of savings more productively in the economy,” McGrath told this writer.

The amount of savings currently “idle” in various financial institutions is a chunk of money which could help change things.

It has the potential to chime with a large number of people in middle Ireland who could make a little additional money on hard-won savings.

Its impact on Fianna Fáil’s election fortunes remains to be seen.