TENS of thousands of Northern Ireland shoppers are pouring over the border to take advantage of significantly lower prices caused by the weakening euro.
Hotels, shops and businesses operating close to the Republic’s side of the border are reporting a currency-fuelled business boom on the back of the decision by the European Central Bank to pump billions of euro into the eurozone economy through quantitative easing. The move saw the euro drop further against sterling, giving consumers from Northern Ireland a longer-stretching pound in the south.
Tourism chiefs in the Republic are predicting that 2015 will be their best in years.
In Dundalk, Co Louth, Paddy Malone from the local Chamber of Commerce said the town was “booming” again for the first time in years.
The flow of trade into the Republic is a reversal of the cross-border boom enjoyed by border retailers in Northern Ireland around 2009.