Northern Ireland will “waste” almost £8million on Easter eggs this year, according to research published today, the Belfast Telegraph reports.

Charity World Vision says that £17m will be spent on presents in the province this Easter, even though a survey revealed more than half of the UK population think Easter eggs are a waste of money. And a quarter of those surveyed admitted to receiving so many eggs that they couldn’t eat them all.

Green groups welcomed the research and condemned the excessively wasteful packaging of Easter eggs. International relief and development agency World Vision also asked people across the UK what they most associated with Easter. A total of 40 per cent of people in Northern Ireland said they associated it with Christianity while the figure was only 25 per cent for the rest of the UK.

World Vision called for people to purchase gifts that will help those in the developing world rather than buying Easter eggs. For example, 20 chicks for farming communities in Sri Lanka can be bought for £14. An Easter card would then be sent to the person in the UK detailing the gift. A total of 1,900 adults were questioned for the survey.