Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail)

I thank the Acting Chair for allowing me some time. I appreciate the Minister is under time pressures. Like the other Senators, I greatly appreciate his attendance in the House. He is affording us strong attention and I hope the contributions from the Senators merit that.

Many of the other Senators spoke in detail about the Bill. I will focus my comments on an issue that has been aired by others, that is, the effect of defamation crimes on retail. I could talk at length about the cause of defamation, other citizens and other walks of life but I was nominated by RGDATA to contest the Seanad election. I was very privileged to receive its nomination and I am delighted to represent it here. RGDATA represents the small, indigenous, independent Irish retailer - the SPAR or Centra where we go to buy a bottle of milk, sliced pan or newspaper. These retailers are there early in the morning and late at night. From getting to know them and understanding their business, I know they are people who get up in the morning and go to bed at night thinking about how they are going to sustain their business. They have made a very significant financial and personal investment and commitment, not just to the bricks and mortar of the premises they operate but to the creation of employment for people in our communities and the provision of a service to their communities, with all that entails. For many of them, their margins are so thin that if they did not own the premises, I do not think they would have the margins to continue trading because they have been very directly impacted by increased costs.

This Bill is really important to small retailers because they do not want to spend their time considering legal matters. They are not lawyers or solicitors. They do not want to have to take time out of providing a service to their customers and their community and looking after their employees by engaging in litigation of any manner. However, they are subject to and targets of crime on a regular basis. I know the Minister knows this and I commend him on his engagement with the sector, his establishment and convening of the retail crime forum, and his engagement with it on that. The Minister knows that retail crime is costing €1.6 billion in Ireland and that Ireland has the highest per capita cost of retail crime. It is more than €350 per person. This is an enormous cost.

Getting this Bill right is really important. The Minister has heard contributions from others. We will have Committee Stage. I look forward to engaging with the Minister and his officials over the coming weeks to bring the Bill forward because there are an awful lot of very positive innovations in it. I commend the Minister on his work.