If the sales hype is to be believed, the women will spend the cash on breast enlargements, the men will buy jet skis and the elderly will go on foreign holidays.

As the first 40,000 of Ireland’s special savings investment accounts matured this week, releasing close to €600m into an already overheating economy, the country’s retailers were ready. In the next 12 months, a total of €16bn worth of accounts are set to mature and more than 1m people will receive an average of €15,000.