Published Friday, 04 December 2009
Shoppers from the South spent around £400m here during a 12 month period ending last summer according to the Republic's Central Statistics Office.
Estimates had put the figure higher.
Even so it's a lot of money. And in any case the true total might be greater. The survey was carried out during the Spring while most people will naturally spend more at Christmas. And it doesn't take into account car buying.
There's lots of information which will be pored over by businesses here to see how they might best target their advertising
One in six of all householders came across the border to shop during the period surveyed. For the northernmost counties the proportion was much higher at two out of five.
Around one in ten said they had been shopping more regularly than in previous years.
The typical family spent around £260 a trip, just under half of it on groceries. Only about thirty quid was coughed up for booze.
Over the next twelve months, seven per cent expect to shop regularly up here. Double that proportion will come to make one off purchases while four out of five won't be turning up at all.