Thanks for the replies. I did a quick search for Cash Funds in Ireland and came across offerings from BOI, AIB, Canada Life, Fidelity, Standard Life.
The point of the original question was to identify a "safe" fund which spread deposits over multiple accounts so if one bank goes bust you dont lose all. So, from a safety point of view, presuming you dont trust bank deposits to be safe, it would be fairly pointless putting it into a cash fund at a bank either.
So I guess what that means is putting the money into a cash fund, with some company who are not a bank.... and who dont have unknown exposure to bad debt. But is doing this safer than just leaving deposits in the bank? Or is it a different shade of the same trouble?
Do companies exist whose business model is to simply hold your deposits, and guarantee their safety by doing nothing with that cash (no loans etc), other than leave it sitting there on your behalf? I suppose they would make their piece by charging you a management fee seen as theyre not making it in the standard banking manner. Obviously youd get no interest whatsoever, but at least youd be sure your initial lump sum was safe, which seems a fairly attractive proposition to me these days.