Average Irish person carries just E23 in their wallet

New research has revealed that us cash strapped Irish carry on average only €23 at any given time. Sure that's more than enough, right?

Gone are the days when you’d see people walking down Grafton Street peeling off a few fifties from a wad to give to the Charlie Chaplin statute guy. Why’s that? Well, if you look in your wallet right now you’ll more than likely only have around €23 in there and no wads.

That’s according to new research carried out by Visa Europe, which claims the Irish only carry a small amount of cash, but that we're the highest users of ATM cash on a per capita basis in Europe. Well, that’s probably down to the fact that most pubs and clubs have an ATM inside them these days.

The research also found that as a nation we spend a whopping 11.2 million minutes queuing in shops on a daily basis. Visa says that will be dramatically reduced thanks to their new contactless technology, which is currently being rolled out across the nation.

When asked about the new technology, 45 per cent of respondents said the best thing about contactless payments is that it speeds things up at the till. If you ask us, the best thing about the technology is that it prevents any awkward chitchat with the cashier.