Shoppers from the Republic spent €435 million across the border in the twelve months to the end of June this year.

In their first ever survey of cross border shopping, the Central Statistics Office (CSO) says 16% of households here made at least one trip north in that time.

Over a third of trips started in the Dublin region.

Research showed that those most likely to have shopped in Northern Ireland were households living in the border region as well as those with children.

80% of those surveyed said they crossed the border for groceries while 44% chose to spend their cash on alcohol.

The figures come as retailers here urge consumers to shop locally – Retail Ireland claim one jobs here is lost for every 150 shoppers who go North.

However, most of those surveyed intended to shop in the North again in the next 12 months.

Those who said they would not make the trip again accounted for just one in five.

Paddy Malone from Dundalk Chamber of Commerce told Lunchtime with Eamon Keane supermarket prices have dropped a lot here in recent months, and people should do their sums before they hit the road.

“I believe people are rushing to the North to a certain extent without really sitting down and doing their numbers” he said.

“Definitely alcohol is an awful lot cheaper in the North – there’s no question about that”.

“But grocery prices between various retail outlets; we’ve done comparisons….between Newry and Dundalk and this time last year there was a significant difference – but with the price war, it’s down to around 6 or 7%, no more than that” he added.