What was financing this Christmas splurge?

After years of scrimping, the Irish people are sick of penny-pinching. They decided en masse to splash out in the lead up to Christmas and in the sales that followed.

There have been no increases in workers’ wages for some years. For most people, the universal social charge still cuts their take-home pay drastically. It was never meant to be a permanent feature. This is a give-and-take Government — the more we give, the more they take.

The banks do not lend too easily, either. Credit cards must have financed the recent splurge.