Spending on Visa debit, credit and prepaid cards increased by 83 per cent to €21 billion in Ireland last year.

This was driven largely by the migration of customers from laser to Visa debit cards and increased use of contactless payments, the company said yesterday. There had been more than 1.4 million contactless transactions in Ireland up to the end of September, with retailers such as SuperValu, Eurospar, Marks & Spencer and Dublin's Arnotts now accepting them.

Visa said that one-quarter of all consumer transactions here last year was on one of its cards – the balance was largely cash and cheques – and it is targeting an increase in this figure to 33 per cent in 2015.

In total, 358.1 million Visa transactions were conducted in Ireland in 2013, more than double the level of the previous year.

The number of transactions per card was up 45 per cent at 79.5 but the average point-of-sale transaction value reduced by 14 per cent to €59.50.

Visa plans to launch its V.me concept in Ireland in the second half of this year, allowing consumers to purchase goods online without having to enter their card details every time. It has also launched a person-to-person payments system with AIB that allows people to make secure payments to each other via their smartphones.

Conor Langford, Visa's country manager for Ireland, said: "There is still plenty of opportunities in terms of increasing Ireland's competitiveness through increased usage of electronic payments."