The pressure to ‘keep up with the joneses’ is fuelling Ireland’s demand to buy black market versions of well-known sports brands, cosmetics, smartphones and cigarettes.

One man in Dublin city centre said: “People can’t afford it these days so they have to go with the counterfeit goods. I know it’s wrong but at the end of the day you’re not gonna stop it.”

Newstalk’s Henry McKean was speaking to people near the Meath Street area in Dublin city centre with one trader even going as far as to say, “The only way people can make money is to sell cheap stuff to actually feed their families.”

One young boy who was wearing an €82 trainers told Henry: “You would get ‘slagged’ if you are wearing fakes and told, ‘your parents can’t afford real ones’.”

He added a replica of the same pair he had could be bought for €20 in other places.

Another girl agreed, saying counterfeit items were rife in Dublin. She said: “[They're] very easy to get. You just go to Meath St, or you just get them on the markets. Here, they’re only €20 but in the shop, they’d be about €120 – you’d know the difference though straight away.”

But it’s not just cheap versions of branded clothing that’s being bought – cosmetics are too. One young girl said her sister bought a fake luxury branded foundation which had a smell of alcohol.

She said: “The brand was Isadora and it’s worth a good bit. She got it for €10. It’s worth a lot more. When she squirted it onto her make-up brush it smelt like vodka.”

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