Their parents may have seen their take home pay shrink over the past year but children making their first communion in the weeks ahead will not be as badly affected by the downturn and look set to take home an average of over €400 after their big day.
While this news is good for 60,000 Catholic children, their parents will be less pleased to learn that the costs look set to jump by more than 10 per cent in just a year, according to an EBS survey published today.
The building society carries out a survey of communion costs each year and it has estimated that children making their communion this year will get an average of €416 in gifts each compared with €398 in 2010.
The survey asked how much adults thought was appropriate to give as a gift and 91 per cent said €50 or less was sufficient. The average sum was €37 per person, the same as 2010.
The anticipated costs of hosting a first communions has increased and parents said they expected to spend €600 once the cost of the clothes, food, fake tan, bouncy castle - and possibly a bible or some rosary beads - were added together. The average spend last year was estimated to be €530.
While the grown-ups will be throwing money around like confetti at a wedding, the children are likely to be a lot more careful and 67 per cent will save most or all of their holy payout. This is down slightly on 2010 when the number stood at 70 per cent.
Among the other findings of the survey, the EBS reported that 70 per cent of respondents agreed with the idea of giving children money for their communion although 62 per cent said it should be done within reason.
As well as asking families about their communion spending habits, the EBS also asked a number of questions in relation to how adults feel the current economic climate is impacting on their children.
While 79 per cent of parents agreed that the current economic climate will negatively impact on their children, 69 per cent said the current economic conditions would help their children learn to be more careful with money.
A separate study carried out by the Irish League of Credit unions and published last week reported that children are getting up to €500 on the day with one in eight families turning to moneylenders to fund the event. It also found that 20 per cent of families used credit cards to cover some of the expense on the day.
