Deals from Irish AppleStore
Discounts on refurbished products from Apple
Although not heavily publicised, Apple offer deals through their Irish online store (www.apple.com/irelandstore/). The Special Deals section on the front page points buyers to discounted products which have been refurbished by Apple. These still come with the standard one year limited-warranty, but because they are refurbished goods they come at a lower price tag.
The UK Store runs a similar system, where goods are offered for sale on Wednesdays at 10:00am: http://www.apple.com/ukstore/. However the difference between the two stores lies in the online facility. The UK online store offers a section of the website where goods are displayed once a week. To see the difference, go to the UK link above and click on the "special deals" link on the right hand side of the page (with the red sales tag). This page brings you to the special deals page and has an advert for these discounted goods. However the Irish front page links to the Deals page. If you click on the "promos" tab you will see a link to "Incredible savings on Refurb products - Pro customers" which is an advert page. Irish customers are requested to phone Apple's Irish freephone line (1800 923898) to ask about the offers on sale. There is no website listing for what is on offer. Also, the UK store appears to offer refurbished products to all customers, whereas the Irish store is aimed at "Pro" customers.
This may change in the future, but it is probably still worth checking out if you are looking for a product and want to see if there are any deals available.