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

I want to contribute to this question because a couple of major trends are happening at the moment. The first is Brexit, which, with the change in the value of sterling, is pushing many more people north of the Border to make purchases. It is also making online sterling purchases far more competitive. In this State, about 35% of purchases have moved online, which means that retail is under fierce pressure in this State. Of all online purchases, 70% of the money goes out of the country. Last year, €8 billion was spent online in this State. For years there was a problem with grants to retail because it was felt that if one gives a grant to a retailer, it displaces another retailer up the street. However, the truth of the matter is that, between people travelling and e-commerce, this is not necessarily the case. These people are in competition-----

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