Irish credit and debit card users spent less money abroad and more on education in August than in July as the summer holiday season wound down and students faced a hike in third-level fees.
The Central Bank of Ireland’s latest card payment statistics reveal what it called a “spike” in spending on education last month.
The “back-to-school effect” saw Irish households spend an additional €65.82 million on education compared to July, the Central Bank said. This represented an increase of 120.7 per cent from July and just over 3 per cent from August 2024.
“In particular, the main merchant driving this annual increase in education spending is ‘colleges, universities’, where spending rose by 6.05 per cent (€3.57 million) compared with August 2024,” it said.
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The increase likely relates to the Government’s decision to raise the student contribution to €3,000 for the current academic year. The fee had been reduced to €2,000 in recent budgets as a temporary cost-of-living measure.
Overall, the Central Bank said the total value of card spending amounted to almost €9.5 billion in August, down 2.8 per cent from July and 3.11 per cent in volume.
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“Despite this short-term dip, both value and volume displayed strong annual growth, increasing by 7.65 per cent and 6.04 per cent respectively compared with August 2024,” it said.
Card spending abroad, meanwhile, dropped by 9.7 per cent from July to €1.71 billion, which the Central Bank said was expected after a high volume of overseas spending was recorded in the previous month.
Non-domestic spending increased sharply over the summer months.
June was the first month since October 2022, when the Central Bank began collecting card payment data, that spending on foreign hotels was higher than the money spent on accommodation in the State.
Lower levels of domestic expenditure on accommodation and leisure over the summer months may have added to pressure on the Irish tourism industry, which has grappled with a drop-off in visitors from Britain and Europe this year.
Central Statistics Office figures published earlier this week revealed that the average length of stay for overnight visitors was 8.6 nights in August, down from an average of 8.7 nights in August 2024 and 9.9 nights in August 2023.
Total visitor spend also slumped by 9 per cent year-on-year to €744 million, the CSO said.
