Ms Tara Buckley:

The ratio of retail crime to the cost of defamation is probably about 70:30. The biggest issues for us are a couple of things. All of the Deputy's suggestions will be and should be examined by the retail crime task force because we need to examine every element of how we deal with retail crime and antisocial behaviour to try to see if there are good solutions. We need to examine those ideas and ideas from other places.

We have put in suggestions around fixed penalty notices because we have CCTV footage and know exactly what has happened. The gardaí know exactly what has happened and instead of taking up all of their time in the lengthy process we have, we need a blunter, faster response. We need to make sure everyone understands this is not a victimless crime. Retail crime has a huge impact on the retailer and his or her staff and on the other customers because if it is costing a retailer €100,000 per year, where does he or she get that €100,000 from? The retailer has to put prices up and we do not want to do that. There are a lot of ideas that need to be explored and we would be very supportive of any measures that could make the system faster, make it much clearer to people that there is a consequence to indulging in these crimes, and try to sort out antisocial behaviour.

On the VAT rate being reduced to 9%, our members would also appreciate that because a lot of our members run very good food service businesses within their shops and cafés, so we would welcome that too.