Irish Examiner view: Support your neighbours by shopping local

For those of us able to spend the money and the time, shopping local is imperative this Christmas, as it was last

Christmas shoppers on Henry Street, Dublin; more than €7m will be spent each hour in the scarper to ready gifts to put under the trees on Christmas Day. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Thursday is expected to be the busiest shopping day of the year, with people from Cork, Limerick, Dublin, and Tipperary expected to be the biggest spenders.

According to research by AIB, which has skin in the game, men will continue to leave their Christmas shopping until the last minute — it hardly required comprehensive research to tell us that — outspending women by 8% on Christmas Eve.