Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail)

It was encouraging to see that the CSO crime statistics, released last week, show that detection rates for crime incidents reported in 2024 were equal to or above those in 2023 for nine of the 14 crime offence groups.

The Department is currently progressing work to develop a retail crime strategy to tackle the complex and evolving nature of retail crime, which the Deputy mentioned. We are all too conscious that this is not just about organised retail crime, and that there is a large amount of lower level, everyday shoplifting, which has just as serious an impact on smaller retailers and their staff. The retail crime strategy will build on existing initiatives to tackle this criminality, integrating the latest national and international evidence-informed approaches for enforcement and prevention strategies, in addition to supports for retail workers.

In September, at the National Ploughing Championships, the Department published the rural safety plan for the period from 2025 to 2027. The plan’s vision is to ensure people and communities in rural Ireland feel safe and are safe in their homes, places of work and local communities.

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