Mr. Noel Dunne:

I would certainly welcome anything that would help and would be a deterrent. Certainly, on the third issue, the youths, say, 14-year-olds to 17-year-olds, as I explained earlier, there is absolutely nothing we retailers can do. Like the gentleman who spoke earlier, I have gone out after people. My staff have gone after people.

The youths on these scooters are an absolute nightmare and we need to have something where they are deterred from coming into an area. I read recently about another jurisdiction where the police were allowed to escort these people home, back to their houses and back to their parents. We need something like that. Anything that would be a deterrent would be welcome so that when these guys come into town and they want to do something like this, they would ask themselves if they are caught what could happen to them whereas at the moment what they say is if they are caught nothing will happen to them and why would they not try it. I would welcome any deterrent whatsoever, be it barring, fines or being brought back home. I would welcome anything that would help us to curb what is happening at the moment and see if it develops

What is happening at the moment, as I said earlier, is that it is increasing because there is no deterrent. If there is a deterrent put in place, let us see would it decrease over time with deterrence. Of course, it would.

That is what we are here for today. We need a line drawn in the sand now that we will put deterrents in place. For each of these groups, whether they be youths, the opportunists or the gangs, we must have a deterrent in place. As the Deputy so rightly said earlier on, it will be a different approach to each of them.

We need to take action now. Deputy Shanahan spoke about the rising costs of doing business in Ireland, not in Dublin city but everywhere, with the minimum wage and the auto-enrolment coming through.

This is another huge cost on top of what we will face in 2024. I know it sounds dramatic but Ms Buckley spoke earlier about the chances of small retailers becoming defunct and being gone. That is a real possibility. Now that we are in a room together, we have an opportunity to do something. I ask the committee to please help us put any deterrent it can in place for these groups.