Our country needs us to start spending again

IT’S time for Irish consumers — battered by years of price gouging in the Celtic tiger era and beyond — to come out of their bunkers and start buying again.

There are lots of bargains to be had and it is time to start spending some of the €88 billion we have stashed away in the banks, mostly in low interest yielding accounts.

However, shell-shocked consumers are slow to part with their hard earned cash and it’s hard to blame them. They have long memories — they were gouged by almost anyone with a till during the boom years. They have come to believe that retailers, restaurateurs, publicans, tradesmen, builders and everyone who can, will rip them off.