Visa Europe says Irish shoppers spent an average of €1,700 each on online purchases

[seabhcan]

High street rents? Pardon my French here but F^%$ 'em.
If we are competitive abroad we can export. If we aren't, we can't, simple as.
We need to reduce our costs urgently.

Landlord bankruptcies are the best and quickest way to reducing costs.

[Factorem]

Landlord bankruptcies are the best and quickest way to reducing costs.

If you think the commercial rents market is a "free market", you're naive in the extreme.

Every dodgy trick in the book is played so as to squeeze every last drop of blood from productive businesses.

[myksav]

Even clothes can now be bought online.

Helly Hansen allow you to return your goods if they don't fit. I bought a jacket that was too big and within a week, I had the correct size and picked a different colour.

All the online shops have that return policy from my experience. And most of them are quite quick with shipping, initial and replacement.

[birthday]

For online purchases of VAT rated goods outside the jurisdiction does the exchequer suffer a loss?

[myksav]

For online purchases of VAT rated goods outside the jurisdiction does the exchequer suffer a loss?

For online purchases within the EU area, yes. From outside the EU, it depends on value or item. Excise may be applied.

[slx]

I'd suspect a very large chunk of that is made up by Aer Lingus and Ryanair etc.

We're an island, it's rather hard to get in/out of the place without using the internet and an aircraft.