Michael Finucane (Fine Gael)

In the context of economic considerations and the many people availing of the special savings and investment scheme who have lost their jobs, is it right to impose a penalty if they want to withdraw from that scheme at this point? Consideration should be given to situations where people can no longer sustain the investment over the period envisaged for the scheme. People should not be penalised if they want to opt out now and they should get back all the funds they have invested. There should be recognition of that within the scheme, rather than the imposition of a penalty if people decide to pull out at an early stage.