Gabrielle McFadden (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

For years, the phenomenon of Black Friday has existed in the United States and more recently it has been creeping into this country in a big way. It is a good event in some respects because it kick-starts the Christmas period and the Christmas shopping campaign for retailers. In my area, Longford town has made much of the event using social media and has created a great atmosphere in the town. Some shops in Longford claim that their sales could be up by as much as 600% on the day compared with a good Friday in December. Perhaps we could consider doing a green Thursday. When I was a child in the countryside we came to Dublin on 8 December and I do not know why as a country we could not have a green Thursday on 8 December and encourage everyone to buy Irish and to buy locally. It has been reported that if one spends €10 locally on Irish products it generates up to €24 of benefit to the local community.

I have a mantra that I always use at home and I have reared my children to adopt it. It is "Keep your business in Westmeath, keep Westmeath in business." It is very important that we would try to campaign to buy Irish. I am not sure whether the Minister could create a campaign for fear of EU sanctions, but perhaps the Leader could contact the Minister and she could encourage the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association to start a campaign to encourage people to buy Irish and to create our own green Thursday.