Children cleaning up on First Communion

CHILDREN making their First Holy Communion are collecting up to €1,000 from friends and relatives — almost treble the amount made in the 1990s, research has revealed.

With a big family celebration now the norm for the girls and boys, the occasion resembles a mini-wedding.

In the 1970s, when oil prices rose and there was rampant inflation, children on average received €71, compared to €335 in the 1990s when the economy took off.