The recent estimate by the Irish Insurance Federation gave a figure of about €15 billion to be released at that time. That figure assumes a capital growth of 15%, which seems a little bit high. Irrespective of that, it is impossible to know exactly at this stage but there will be a substantial amount of money. My Department will look at the impact on the economy at that stage. However, the purpose of this scheme was to encourage people back into saving.
The Insurance Federation will have a particular angle about all this and will want to encourage the Minister to go down a particular road which will benefit certain products. Part of the research done for the organisation, which was carried out by Lansdowne Market Research, gave indications on what account holders were intending to do at this stage. It found that 8% of account holders indicated that they would spend their funds immediately, 11% stated they would spend some of it immediately and the rest later, 22% stated they would spend some immediately and save or reinvest the rest, 16% stated they would save or reinvest it all, and 9% indicated that they would put some or all of it in a pension plan for use at retirement.