The food delivery and takeaway market in Ireland is worth an estimated €2.2 billion a year.
That's according to a new report from Just Eat, which also found that consumers spend an average of €46.69 on takeaways each month.
Grocery is a rapidly growing area for the sector, with 23% having used a food delivery service to order groceries over the past year.
Those that use grocery delivery services spend more than €174 a month on average.
Meanwhile, more than half of people are interested in knowing the carbon footprint of their takeaway order - and 65% of people find it important that restaurants are transparent in what they are doing to be sustainable.
One-third said they would choose a restaurant that uses sustainable takeaway packaging over one that only uses regular plastic.
A Just Eat sign in Dublin city centre in April 2021. Picture by: Sasko Lazarov / RollingNews.ieJust Eat Ireland Managing Director Amanda Roche-Kelly told Newstalk Business Editor Joe Lynam a surge seen during the pandemic has normalised.
"It's evened out - we had a phenomenal two years during COVID," she said.
"Hopefully, for a lot of our restaurant partners, they benefited from that and from being able to deliver.
"The reason we did so well was that we gave... a safe space for consumers and restaurant partners to integrate with each other and for them to deliver safely.
"Also, for a lot of restaurants, [to] add a new revenue stream for those that had never delivered before.
"That continued, but again that couldn't go on, and we've got back to what we've all being calling the new normal".
'Green vehicles'
Ms Roche-Kelly said the company is more conscious along with customers.
"The rise of what they're calling now 'the conscious consumer' is huge," she said.
"We're looking at all aspects of our business - we're looking at green vehicles.
"We've a lot of couriers on bicycles anyway, because that's the best way to get around Dublin, in particular.
"Outside the main cities - we're the only national brand in Ireland - so when you go deeper into the country, it's easier to have a car.
"We are looking into that whole green element.
'We won't be going down that road'
Ms Roche-Kelly said their delivery drivers are "independent couriers", but that is how they want it.
"They can choose their own hours, they can choose the number of deliveries they do and they can choose how they get paid for those," she said.
"That's the way they want it in Ireland.
"In Just Eat globally, we do have a model where we employ couriers and we've looked at that to introduce it into Ireland.
"But flexibility seems to be the key in this country, so we won't be going down that road for the moment," she added.
