Tesco has slashed prices at 11 stores in the Irish Republic in an attempt to stop the flow of cross-border shoppers seeking bargains in Northern Ireland.

The initiative, covering 12,500 goods with price cuts averaging 22 per cent, is intended to hold back the tide of cross-border shopping that has devastated retailing in Ireland’s border towns. Tesco itself has endured a 13 per cent decline in Irish sales densities over 2009, according to Shore Capital.