Annual expenditure on Visa cards in Ireland reached €15.5 billion for the first time last year marking an increase of 17% on 2011.

According to the annual report from the company for the year ending September 30th 2012 €1 in every €7 of consumer spending in Ireland is now on a Visa card.

There was also a 43% increase in the number of Visa cards - Debit, Credit and Prepaid - in Ireland last year.

This number increased to to 5 million in 2012.

High sports spending

These figures also followed a good summer of spending with sport being highlighted particularly.

It says between May and September €85.9 million was spent across a range of categories such as the amount spent in sporting goods and bicycle stores, summer sports camps and membership fees for sports clubs and gyms.

In total there were just over 1 million sports related transactions in Ireland over the summer with an average value of €84.39 per transaction.

Sales spiked in August with transactions in a number of categories rising during that month.

Sales in bicycle shops rose by 8.1% and purchases in sporting goods stores spiked by 24.9% in August alone.

Mark O'Brien managing director in the UK and Ireland for Visa and says the largest increase last year was in Debit cards.

He also says more retailers are opting into its contactless payments scheme which sees consumers touch their Visa card to a terminal without a PIN.

He spoke to Breakfast Business here on Newstalk.