Ms Tara Buckley:

We encourage our members to report every incident. If incidents are not reported, statistics will not show the extent of the problem. There was concern that there is no point in reporting. For some of the incidents, particularly those involving youths, there is a feeling that there is no point in reporting because nothing will happen. We encourage our members to report. The incidence is up 14% in the Garda statistics, so the reporting is up, but we are aware that not every incident is reported due to the feeling that doing so is pointless. A retailer who has gone down the route of reporting an incident and creating a case only for nothing to happen or for the person to get bail or whatever may get disillusioned and decide it is not worth doing so again. It will make a big difference if cases that arrive in the courts are treated adequately. Reporting is up 14% in the past year. The Garda knows this is a big issue.

As we already know, that has been an issue over the past number of years and unfortunately it is growing every year. In terms of the cost, that cost we put on is an average cost of approximately €40,000. That included the loss of goods, damage to the store and whatever else would have to be paid for such as CCTV and security. On average the cost is approximately €40,000 for our members. Retail Ireland did a study on the overall cost of retail crime and came out with a figure of €1.6 billion. The items stolen from our stores might be of low value but there are significant amounts of them. The value of the items is higher in the case of jewellery and mobile phone shops in terms of individual robberies.