Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister for his engagement with us on the Bill. Before I speak to my amendment, I acknowledge the securing by him and his Department of more than €6 billion in the budget this week. That significant amount of public funds will go towards ensuring our State is safer and that justice is served for all our citizens. Well done. It is a big achievement and it should be acknowledged. The Minister has made a firm commitment to increase Garda numbers and this funding will provide for up to 1,500 extra gardaí. It will also allow for more Garda stations and vehicles, infrastructure to address cybersecurity and make provision for immigration services. There is an allocation of €18 million for services for those experiencing domestic violence. There will be money for additional staff for prisons, for the Probation Service and for extra prison spaces. All of this funding, which is accompanied by increased funding for the Legal Aid Board and Free Legal Advice Centres, is really welcome. It shows the commitment of the Minister and the Government to ensuring we have a fully functioning justice system that serves our citizens fairly and without prejudice.

In turning to the Bill before us, I go from that high-level consideration of billions of euro for State infrastructure and services to thinking about how State legislation affects some of our very important but very humble citizens. I refer to local retailers, particularly in my community. I think of Yasser in the local Spar, Omar in Centra and Mary in Phibsborough. These are people who have dedicated their lives to providing a service in my community. They invest in purchasing, leasing or renting properties, purchasing stock, hiring staff, attending to the welfare of those staff, creating quality employment and providing a really good service to their customers. They do their best every single day, often seven days a week. For them, it is a lifestyle choice. This is the purpose to which they choose to dedicate their lives. We are lucky to have them and we all appreciate them.

Increasingly, however, small retailers are challenged in delivering for their customers. Along with energy costs, employment costs and many others, one of the biggest costs is the threat to their livelihood and the service they provide from crime. Retail crime is real and it is pervasive, not just in urban areas, as Senator McDowell noted, but throughout the country. Under law, we are all entitled to defend ourselves, our property, our income and our right to trade. People have all those rights under law. My amendment No. 9 seeks to help retailers to achieve that defence without having to incur additional costs.

Shop owners often have to challenge individuals on their premises engaging with their staff and attempting to steal their products, actually stealing or pretending to steal. There are people who get up every morning with the sole purpose in life to do this. They are organised to do it; such activity is not a casual, opportunistic or once-off event. There are people out there - not a lot, thankfully, but there are some - who engage in this as more or less a full-time occupation. When challenged, they turn it on the shop owners, who are then accused of defaming those individuals. Taking the case to court costs retailers in time, energy and stress. They must engage with professionals and take time out of their workplace and away from their employees and customers. There is a financial cost to all of that, as the Minister knows, and it is having a real impact on retailers' ability to survive.It is undermining the viability of their businesses. I was nominated by RGDATA which represents over 3,000, largely independent, indigenous Irish retailers. These are not big, anonymous corporate organisations with big resources who can rely on those significant resources to defend their case. These are individuals, many of them second and third generation shop owners and operators, who were born into their communities and have traded in and served those communities for generations. They want to continue to do that but they are increasingly being squeezed out. This is not just because of crime and defamation. I appreciate that there are many other factors at play and the Minister alone cannot solve those but this is a real cost to them that is undermining their viability. The legal costs to them can be in the tens of thousands of euro. For many of them this is an additional burden that hinders them and creates barriers to them continuing to viably trade.

I urge the Minister to consider my amendment. It seeks to remove a cause of action for the actions that are outlined in section 8 so that there is no doubt but that a court will not entertain a case of such a nature provided it fits within the criteria set out in section 8(1)(b). It would send a really clear signal to prospective claimants against pursuing such cases and remove the real exposure to costs that retailers face in invoking a defence, as currently outlined. I appreciate that people do have recourse as it stands. Under the law as it stands they have recourse and can defend themselves. The law allows them to do that but the cost of exercising that right to a defence is increasingly beyond too many of them. We should send a strong signal that our justice system is there to act reasonably and to defend them in the operation of their business and the provision of their service in our communities. I ask the Minister to consider the amendment.