Mr. Damian Duggan:

We have an issue with cash for gold and, in a lot of house break-ins, silver-plated items have been left behind and gold has been taken. There is no legislation to stop a five year old kid taking his mother's wedding ring and going into a shop to get cash for it.

We met with the Department of Justice and Equality a number of years ago and suggested that such shops offer cheques for gold rather than cash for gold because cheques are traceable and one must have a bank account with a name and address in order to lodge them. A person selling five or six rings to a shop would be traceable. There is a sign in my shop which states that we do not buy gold and that is because there is no legislation governing its purchase or that of other precious metals. All of these points must be considered. Some quite easy options, such as the proposed implementation of the cheques for gold measure six years ago, would have prevented many house break-ins and meant that many jewellers would not have been so easily targeted for what people can very quickly get rid of in another shop.