Mr. Anthony Gallagher:

I am involved in a city centre project representing retail business. I exchange views with them and they will readily tell me the names of the people; they are that familiar to them. There is a volume of offenders who are involved in shoplifting and medium-type crime. Then there are the more aggressive types who will accompany it with threatening, abusive behaviour and in some instances assault. I would have a close liaison still with the city centre stations and a good relationship with them. There is a known group of about 20 or 25 offenders that I have spoken about. I am wondering if it is a capacity issue when it comes to terms of bail. Some of these recidivist criminals are obtaining bail. Many of them are presenting with warrants. The example I gave was of a particular night when two stores were delighted that two offenders were caught. Great work was done by the Garda, to be fair, in this instance. One of them got bail the following day, arrived at the store and displayed the number of charge sheets he was after getting. That deflated the staff. He went on to commit a crime and was subsequently arrested. When the example of it works, it works great. I would like to see that there is an understanding or case management to represent the profile of particular offenders, to highlight that if they are committing crime in the north-central area or the south-central area, the information would be collated. I understand that has happened in the past. Maybe it needs to get another boost to arrive at that and give the business people confidence that some of the crimes they are reporting will be dealt with.