The director of the Small Firms Association (SFA), Mr Pat Delaney, yesterday called on shoppers to buy Irish this Christmas. He said consumer spending over the Christmas season would reach €3.49 billion, with the hourly spend averaging €18 million on Christmas Eve.

Given this, the SFA believes the Christmas celebrations can give a major economic impetus to the State and help to maintain jobs. "If everyone spent just €60 extra on Irish products, the result would be an extra spend of over €100 million on Irish-made products during Christmas," he said.

"This would have a significant impact for small business and Irish jobs. Given that notified redundancies this year will be the worst since 1984, we need to make a special effort to protect existing jobs."

The SFA's call comes after a survey of Irish consumers showed almost a quarter expect to spend less this Christmas than last year.

According to the Deloitte Christmas shopping survey, this year the average Irish household will spend €1,066 at Christmas, down from a figure of €1,395 last year. But Irish consumers still plan to spend more than their European counterparts, with average spend across the continent only €706.

More than 5,000 consumers in six European countries, including 400 Irish adults, were interviewed via the internet during the first two weeks of November for the survey.

Some 48 per cent of Irish consumers say they will start shopping late this season, mainly in the hope of obtaining discounts, with 15 per cent intending to wait until the sales period after December 25th to make their purchases.

"Consumer spend at Christmas relates to how confident people feel about their income and job security," said Mr Brendan Jennings, head of consumer business at Deloitte.

"The majority of Irish consumers - 75 per cent - believe that the Irish economy is either flat or in recession now... against this background, it is not surprising that Irish consumers are tightening their belts."