Ireland’s 2027 budget offers tax break to help people invest savings

DUBLIN — Ireland will create a new national savings system to spur tax-free investments in stocks and bonds, the government announced Tuesday as the centerpiece of its next tax-cutting budget . The measure is designed to woo at least some of the more than €170 billion currently resting in Irish savers’ bank accounts, most of which is earning paltry rates of interest, into riskier investments with much higher potential returns. The move represents Ireland’s national riposte to pressure from several other European Union countries to boost consumer investment in stocks and bonds on a union-wide basis. Ireland is among the EU members resistant to creating a proposed “Savings and Investments Union” regulated from Brussels, not Dublin.