Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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I am delighted to welcome the delegation from Retail Ireland and former Garda assistant commissioner, Mr. Tony Hickey, who are here to address the topic of the black market and retail crime. Retail Ireland's representatives are Mr. Frank Gleeson, chairman of Retail Ireland and retail director of Topaz Energy, and Mr. Stephen Lynam, a director of Retail Ireland. They will present the findings of an independent report recently commissioned by Retail Ireland entitled Tackling the Black Market and Retail Crime, which outlines key issues that retailers face on a daily basis and the threat posed by the black market to jobs, income and revenue. As a wide ranging representative body, the insight that Retail Ireland can offer on the issues its members face will greatly assist the committee in meeting its mandate of helping small, medium and large business to grow and increase employment. These insights will form part of our work over the coming months, which will involve travelling around the country to meet businesses and groups.

Mr. Tony Hickey will also make a presentation to the committee.

He is very welcome here today. He has spent over 40 years with An Garda Síochána and his experience will be of great benefit to us. He has also served with the serious crime squad and was later placed in charge of national support services with responsibility for the national bureau of criminal investigation, the Criminal Assets Bureau, the Garda bureau of fraud investigation, the Garda national drugs unit and the Garda technical bureau. His background and insight will certainly help us today and, perhaps, in the coming months as we produce our report. He currently works as chairman of the evaluation committee and advisory board of Risk Management International.

I now invite Mr. Lynam to make his presentation.