Savings Certs currently offer 3.53% CAR fixed, state guaranteed and tax free, over the 5.5 year term. This is the equivalent of 4.4125% gross CAR on a deposit account subject to 20% DIRT on interest. At the moment you can get better rates than this on demand and term deposit accounts. Obviously nobody can predict what variable deposit rates will be over the next 5.5 years though. On the other some banks may offer c. 5 year fixed rate deposit accounts with better rates - e.g. [broken link removed] have a 5 year fixed rate deposit account offering 4.43% gross CAR. I have no idea if this is the best c. 5 year rate on offer so shop around if such an account might be suitable. Remember that CPI inflation is c. 5% (HICP - inflation excluding mortgage costs - is c. 2.7%) at the moment so if you are not at least earning that on your money then its real value is falling. Inflation is one of the reasons that seemingly risk free deposit products are not necessarily so risk free.