Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister will agree that the figures are startling. People are spending €8.5 million every day online; while 43% of the population had bought something online. Millions of Irish people now regularly orientate towards online shopping. The figure of €6 billion given in the Minister of State's reply is up from €2.9 billion in early 2012 and it is reckoned that it will grow to €21 billion by 2017, which means it will be an enormous chunk of the figure for the retail sector. That a figure of 75% in this fast-emerging sector is being lost to the country means that thousands of jobs are being lost. The Minister of State mentioned the roll-out of a trading online voucher scheme, but the numbers are not high enough. What is his objective regarding the amount of money he will spend on the project into the future and how many retailers does he expect to be affected annually?

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