Ms Jean McCabe:

Absolutely. We are involved in the retail crime strategy along with the Department of justice and we have fed into it. Mr. Jennings has also been there. How do you change behaviour? You change behaviour by having a consequence for that behaviour. We all know that the issue with the system is that there is no room in the prisons, so it has become a revolving door. When someone is caught and apprehended, gardaí go through the paperwork and the people are in and out the door of the justice system faster that the garda can get back out to his or her car. That is the reality.

If there is a blockage there, how else do we ensure there is a consequence for behaviour? It if was up to me, I would hit them in their pockets. The mechanisms are there already for the Government. If someone does not pay their child benefit, the courts can take it out of their wages or social welfare at source. We should do the exact same thing for retail crime. Hit them where it hurts. Take it from their social welfare or pay packets, fine them, make them do community service and then watch to see if there is a behavioural change. If there is no consequence for behaviour, we will constantly see this revolving door. Those are my thoughts on retail crime.