Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will conclude briefly by thanking the Senator once again for raising this point and underlining the fact that I absolutely fundamentally agree with him, both in terms of his comments in relation to additional Garda resources but crucially, additional resources for the Courts Service. That is why I welcome the announcement by the Minister, Deputy Harris, of the recruitment of more judges. That only goes to one part of it. One cannot have a judge without an effective Courts Service with the ancillary staff that go with it, with the physical locations and making sure our courts are sitting in a manner that will ensure justice is served quickly and fairly. What is crucial in this area is making sure first and foremost that retail workers are kept safe in their workplace but second, when an offence does happen, that justice is served in a timely and efficient manner and in a manner that does not take a retail worker or their employer away from their workplace for too long. I will absolutely bring all that back to the Minister, Deputy Harris. I emphasise that this is an issue on which the Government will not rest. We want to make sure all workers are safe in their workplaces. We have seen measures in relation to our front-line workers, our public service staff at our hospitals and in other areas but we need to expand that. We need to ensure retail workers in shops of all sizes, be they the small corner stores represented by RGDATA or the larger multiples, will go to work every day feeling safe and knowing they will not be put under threats of antisocial behaviour and violence.