Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the issue goes across a number of different Departments. If there is a large-scale exodus of people to do Christmas shopping in the North, essentially there will be a loss to the Exchequer and to the domestic economy, which obviously puts pressure on jobs here.

The HSBC analyst, David Bloom, predicted an interest rate cut by the Bank of England, which could further weaken sterling possibly leading to parity with the euro. I imagine that people who are purchasing will be watching those kinds of things and will want to time their purchases. Even if the full exchange rate difference were passed on here, it still would not account for the price differential. That price differential is a minimum of 20% in most cases and up to 45% depending on the type of item. While the market in the Republic of Ireland is small, it is even smaller in Northern Ireland and therefore one would imagine there would be a cost differential there, but that does not seem to be the case.

There is a serious issue at play here. People do not really have a choice to shop around because all of the multiples appear to start out with a 20% differential. If that is the case, we must ask whether it is warranted, whether it has been organised and what can be done about it.

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