Provisional figures from the Central Statistics Office show that the volume of retail sales rose by 0.5% in April on a monthly basis on the back of strong sales in department stores and in the food, beverages and tobacco sector.
The CSO said that retail sales rose by 11.9% on an annual basis - the fastest annual rise since the financial crisis.
When car sales are excluded, the volume of retail sales rose by 3.1% in April compared to March, while they were 7.8% higher on a yearly basis.
Today's figures show that department store sales jumped by 11.6% in April.
Food, beverage and tobacco sales rose by 4.8% and other retail sales - which includes the likes of household fuel oil, bottled gas and flowers and plants - rose by 4%.
Sectors which saw a decrease in the volume of sales included the motor trade (down 2.5%), while furniture and lighting sales declined by 2.1% and electrical goods sales dipped 0.8%.
The value of sales also rose at close to the same rate, showing that retailers were not as reliant on discounting as they have been in previous months.
Commenting on today's figures, Merrion economist Alan McQuaid said that consumer confidence hit a nine-year high at the start of 2015 and this is now being reflected in stronger retail spending.
The economist said that new cars sales are projected to break the 100,000 level this year for the first time since 2008, but the encouraging feature from these latest numbers is that personal spending in other areas is starting to pick up and is becoming more broad-based.
"This can only be good news for retailers and employment prospects in the sector," he added.
