More than €190 million will be spent on "panic buying" of unwanted Christmas presents this year, aid agency Oxfam Ireland has said. Consumers will spend an average of €48 each on last-minute gifts according to an Oxfam survey of 2,000 Christmas shoppers, with 83 per cent of the population claiming to receive at least one unwanted Christmas present.
The money used to buy these unnecessary and "unimaginative" presents could be used to fund overseas aid programmes for decades to come, according to Oxfam.
"We were astounded to find that the average person will think nothing of rushing out to spend over €48 on unwanted gifts. The same money could buy a gift of a cooking stove, a goat or even a toilet for a family in a developing country," Trevor Anderson, head of retail at Oxfam Ireland said yesterday.
Oxfam, along with a number of other Irish charities produces "alternative gift catalogues" from which shoppers can buy gifts for people in the Third World, which are then sent on behalf of family members, friends, or business associates.
