Seanad debates

Thursday, 22 October 2020

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business

 

10:30 am

Photo of Róisín GarveyRóisín Garvey (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

As spokesperson for enterprise, trade and employment, I want to use my time to encourage people to really think about where they spend their money in the coming six weeks. We spend €5 billion doing online shopping. More than two thirds of this goes outside the country. If we are buying more online, we need to look at the Irish companies. As the Senator said earlier, there is a good article by Conor Pope in The Irish Times. I strongly recommend that people look at it. We also have buyirishfood.ieand there is importance of buying local. Luckily, the farmers' markets have not been shut down this time. We have to look at quality over quantity. Every year in this country, 1 million tonnes of food are wasted by being thrown away. Customers get a better personal service if they support local businesses.They are the character, the make-up and the heart of all our towns and villages and we need to prioritise spending on money locally. Even if people go to the big chains or supermarkets to do their shopping, they also have sections of Irish products. People should take the time and look at the label. If it states, "Packaged in Ireland", it was not made in Ireland but if it states, "Produced in Ireland", it was produced in this country. Let us put our money where our mouth is and go all out to buy Irish. If we could all spend €5 or €10 more per week on Irish goods we could save thousands of jobs. Now is the time. Let us prioritise buying Irish.

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