Spend in Cavan pubs highest across the country

The biggest increase in spending in pubs since January was in Cavan, showing that customers were eager to return to socialising at the month's end.

Spending in Cavan pubs was up by 42% according to the AIB Spend Trend, which was the largest increase seen across the country.

Nationally, the figure rose by one third (32%).

Meanwhile in restaurants spending went up by 16% in February when compared with the previous month.

This was likely driven by the St Brigid’s Day long weekend, the Six Nations rugby matches and the end of Dry January.

Saturday February 1 was the busiest day for spending so far this year in pubs, which was also the day of the highly anticipated Ireland versus England rugby match in the Aviva Stadium, Dublin.

In Monaghan, the pub spend went up by 38% on the previous month.

However it wasn’t just pubs that felt a surge in activity.

Spend on EV charging points across the country increased by 12% month-on-month and a massive 83% year-on-year, as more customers turn to greener modes of transport.

While those spending in service stations increased by 9% in the period from February 2024 to February 2025.

Storm Éowyn led to an exceptionally quiet day on Friday January 24, when the number of in store transactions was down 38% compared with an average day in 2025.

Hardware stores seemed to do well after the storm, with spending up 8% in February.

Later in the year, cinema spend peaked for the year to date on Saturday February 15, the day after Valentine’s Day and following the release of 'Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.'

The data was compiled from almost 67 million card transactions carried out by AIB customers in store and online during February 2025.

Speaking about the data, Adrian Moynihan, Head of Consumer at AIB said it’s "very welcome" to see overall spending up 5% in February and such strong spending across a number of sectors in February, particularly the hospitality sector which would have had a quiet January after the Christmas festivities.

"It’s particularly heartening to see the significant increase in spend on EV charging over the last 12 months, up 83%, as customers choose more sustainable modes of transport and we continue to transition to a low carbon economy," he said.