Mary Fitzpatrick
Industrial and Commercial Panel · Fianna Fáil · Ireland
“It would help inform policy, not just in the drugs space but in all areas of mental health, physical health and our social well-being. I draw the House's attention to the publication this morning of the Government's latest progress report on housing - Delivering Homes, Building Communities.”
“This morning's news coverage is dominated by calls from medical professionals for a ban on e-scooters. This follows calls for bans on social media. The Government has moved to ban vapes. We are actively engaged as a country in banning a lot of things at the moment and there is very good reasoning behind a lot of these proposals.”
“That is just in the first quarter and it is up 33%. More than 46,000 new homes have commenced. There is a lot of activity in terms of supply. Affordability is a huge issue for a lot of people but, in the last year, more than 20,000 first-time home purchasers acquired their own home.”
“I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach for her forbearance and patience with us. I thank Martin and all of the staff of the Seanad Office on behalf of the Fianna Fáil group. It is a tremendous personal honour and privilege for me to serve with all of the Senators.”
“We all understand the value of our local democracy and the incredible role our elected representatives undertake to represent and champion their communities and ensure they are properly served. The Minister came into the House and gave a response which, unfortunately, there was not a hard copy of to share with Senators.”
“Population growth and changing demographics mean that electoral areas must be reviewed and it is really important to ensure that there is fair and adequate representation. Every citizen's voice should carry equal weight, regardless of where he or she lives, so the boundary review is really important.”
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“I thank the Minister of State for being here this morning. I thank the Tánaiste also and everyone in the House for making time. I believe there is unanimity in this House on the condemnation of the atrocities of 7 October. It goes beyond words to describe the horror that was experienced and visited upon the Israeli people when more than 1,000 people were killed and injured and more than 250 were taken hostage. Everybody condemns that, but the only atrocity that has surpassed it has been the military operations of the Israel Defense Forces. It is beyond words to articulate the horror the Palestinian people are experiencing. The barbarity, depravity and lack of humanity that must exist in those who are perpetrating it is beyond comprehension. Ireland is a very small country. We are a very privileged island.”
“For it to be safe, we need the commitment that the Government has made for a public transport police to be delivered. I wish the Minister well. The public and the citizens we serve are demanding that the Government takes competitiveness seriously and supports businesses and entrepreneurs to deliver on it because it is good, not just for our economy but also, as I said earlier, for our environment, our citizens and the overall expectation of our country.”
“Today, Irish Water was calling for an additional €2 billion investment. That funding needs to be made available. Dublin is on a knife edge with water. We need to increase the supply and security of our water. We have already been on water notices this year and we are only in May. The urgency on that cannot be overstated. On public transportation, we have come a long way from the humble Dublin Bus. It is still one of my favourite modes of transports. The Luas was a great innovation and having it extended to Finglas is very important. The metro has been talked about and talked about. We need to get on with it. This Government needs to deliver it for the capital. In tandem with all of that, public transportation needs to be affordable and safe.”
“Under the previous Government, the vacant and derelict grants up to €70,000 were introduced. They have been hugely successful. A total of 31 local authorities have rolled them out and they have worked well. In the programme for Government there is a commitment to a €100,000 above the shop grant. That is there to reflect the additional costs involved with conversion, fire safety and building regulations in those type of buildings. If we can get that grant rolled out and available, there will be a significant take up. The Minister and I both know that the fastest and most sustainable way to increase our housing supply is to reuse the vacant properties that are already there and are connected to electricity and all the utilities. I will mention two last things from the capital's perspective. One is the water infrastructure.”
“Specifically from a Dublin perspective, I would like to see targeted measures to increase supply, the affordability of homes in the capital and the acceleration of adaptive reuse. We have quite a significant commercial vacant space. Other cities have successfully adapted commercial vacant space for residential use. New York has endless examples of it. We should be pushing that and accelerating it in Dublin. The living city initiative has had very limited success in Dublin. I believe it is down to the fact the programme is just too narrow and too limited. There needs to be a review of the living city initiative to extend it, not just geographically but also fiscally, to reflect the real costs of trying to adapt vacant and derelict properties in the capital.”
“We are blessed with the level of economic activity, employment and investment that is taking place here and the innovation and resilience of the economy in the capital, but we cannot take it for granted. There are a few issues that employers and business operators in the capital are calling out very clearly that they want the Government to address. The first one is infrastructural, namely, housing. They say very clearly that housing is their number one issue. They want to see the supply of housing in the capital increase significantly. They also want to see affordable housing. In the next four years the Government has a real opportunity to introduce targeted, timebound measures for Dublin-specific housing supply initiatives.”
“That is €40,000 a year directly out of the bottom line of those small, independent Irish businesses. The initiative by the Government to establish the retail crime group and strategy and the commitment by the Minister for Justice, Deputy Jim O'Callaghan, to increase safety and reduce crime in the retail space is very important, not just for the small retailers but also for the very large retailers. I know big retailers in my area on Henry Street are engaged in this subject too. In the remaining few minutes, I wish to talk about Dublin. I am obviously a Dub but, whatever about our selfish interest in Dublin, it accounts for more than 40% of our economic activity.”
“My colleagues and I met representatives of RGDATA recently. They have real expectations. I believe the Minister is alive to their needs, including addressing the ever-increasing costs of doing business. Their viability as businesses is under threat because of the increasing costs associated with energy, insurance premiums and other associated regulation costs. They welcome the Government's commitment to support their businesses going forward. They need direct supports to help them tackle those costs and continue to trade as viable businesses, serving local communities, creating local employment and generating trade in their local markets. They are under very significant threat from retail crime. Globally, Ireland records the highest cost of retail crime. The average cost is estimated at €40,000 a year.”
“Competitiveness enhances our ability to trade globally. In the not-too-distant past, Ireland moved from being a closed economy but now we are on the global stage and in an open economy. That contributes directly to changing the lives of every one of our citizens - their standard of living, their life experience and life outcomes. It is important that the Government is ever-vigilant on this issue, that the new Government takes it seriously, and that a Minister has been assigned to it and is pulling together all of the stakeholders and working with a sense of purpose and urgency. I was nominated to contest the Seanad election by RGDATA. The Minister will be very familiar with the organisation as he has been and is a supporter of small businesses. It represents more than 3,500 independent Irish retailers, primarily food retailers.”
“We will achieve that by investing in it and supporting those who make the economy, create employment and ensure there is a constant process of innovation. Competitiveness is crucial for our economic development. The initiative the Minister is taking in his Department is important. I welcome the timeline he outlined in that regard today. It is helpful. There is significant interest from the sector in the work he proposes to do on behalf of the Government. Competitiveness is crucial for driving innovation, boosting productivity and attracting investment, including foreign direct investment. The latter does not just manifest in buildings and the trade figures but also in employment, which directly affects the lives of citizens – the quality of their lives, their employment and their professional development as individuals.”
“While the Minister is grabbing this by both horns, I wish him well too. I have full confidence in his capacity to deliver in this very important Department. We are very privileged with the economy and we should not forget to appreciate and express our gratitude to everyone who works and contributes to the economy on a daily basis. We are the envy of many countries, not just in Europe but all around the world for the strength of our economy. Other economies struggled to come back post Covid but our economy came back faster and stronger and, for that, every worker in the country deserves credit. I welcome the Government's recognition of the need to not take our position in the global economy for granted, and that we must always be vigilant and work to ensure the economy is resilient.”
“It is just glorious. We celebrated Biodiversity Week earlier this month. If people want to see biodiversity in action in the city, it does not get any better than the Royal Canal. I commend the Royal Canal Clean-up Group, Waterways Ireland, the local authority waterways group and the Phibsborough village Tidy Town group on the work they do during the rest of the year when everything is not in bloom, the swans are not having their cygnets and we are not all out enjoying the fine evenings. Well done to everybody who gives of their time to protect the Royal Canal.”
“I add my best wishes to the O'Farrell family, who have waited 14 long years for an apology. It is far too long and no parent should ever have such a wait. Shane O'Farrell's parents, family and friends have done the State an incredible service by way of their determination, their courage and, more importantly, their love. I can only imagine that their love is what sustained them. I thank the Minister for Justice for apologising to them on behalf of the State. I call on every Member and every employee in the public service to learn from this and never to put any other citizen through what the O'Farrell family has been put through. I invite all Members, when they get a chance, to come out to the Royal Canal in Phibsborough, which is looking spectacular at the moment. The flowers are blooming and the swans have new cygnets.”
“As I said earlier, however, we want to see representation from the councillors. AILG and LAMA are the representative bodies and have contributed. I am aware the Minister of State has met their officials but we want to see councillors adequately represented on the task force. We want to see Members from both Houses on the task force and we want to see it time bound. We want to see an implementation plan with the recommendations.”
“That they do not get a pension but instead get a gratuity, that the payment of that gratuity is delayed and that it is held in escrow, not gaining anything for them or anybody else for that matter, is inefficient and incompetent and needs to be rectified. Councillors need to be supported with professional services. They need help obtaining independent legal advice and secretarial support, and they need to be equipped to do the job the State is asking them to do. All of them are willing and able and all of them, given the right support, will make an even greater contribution than they are already making. The Minister of State has our full support. The Fianna Fáil group is delighted to be in a position to be able to contribute. We look forward to working with him and his officials to make the task force successful.”
“-----all put themselves forward for election out of a desire to serve their communities. I do not believe they go forward for any other reason but that. The State needs to support them. Senator Joe Conway described one of our councillors who is suffering with an illness and he said they did nothing wrong. Not only did they not do anything wrong but they did something incredibly generous and great. They gave up their time, talent, energy and life to put themselves forward to serve their local community. At a minimum, when councillors need some help, they should be supported. That is the basic minimum they should be provided with.”
“After the moment of celebration comes the immediate realisation of the enormousness of the task and the paucity of the resources. Our local authority members – it does not matter if they are Independents, members of Sinn Féin or the Green Party-----”
“We give the latter very significant resources to come up with plans, including development plans, budgets, housing plans, recreation plans, integration plans, parks plans and traffic plans – endless plans – and then we second-guess them. We bring them back and forth and back and forth, not over weeks and months but over years. That is not good enough and we need to see this change. We need to see recommendations in the democracy task force that will include implementation plans for making the changes to make our local government more responsive and agile. I want to talk about local authority members. It was huge privilege for me to have been elected to represent my local community. It is a huge privilege for any member of a local authority to be elected.”
“Then there is the matter of the tortuous and glacial pace at which the opportunities are progressed because of the back-and-forth, due diligence, cost-benefit analyses and all the processes that are going on at a pace that is not fit for purpose. People are living in the real world and in the here and now and they want local, national and international government to respond at the same pace as they live their lives. They expect that. It is not an unreasonable expectation. When I think of the back-and-forth that goes on, I note the CEOs of our local authorities are paid a very fine salary and pension, which local authority members are not paid.”
“They are dismayed when they find out it is not a matter for the local authority or councillor and that it may be a matter of the NTA, the TII, the OPR or any number of anonymous State-funded organisations that our citizens are paying their tax to fund to provide a service but are at such a remove from the lived experience of the citizens we represent. The task force on democracy needs to consider a rebalancing of the powers. As other Members have said, in rebalancing the powers it must also examine the funding of our local authorities. There is major frustration among local authorities in that they can identify the issues and, more important, the opportunities to solve the problems. Dublin City Council identified many housing solutions.”
“Along with those public servants working in each of our 31 local authorities, local authority members are the front line of our democracy so we need to value them and invest in them. I really believe in the points that have been raised already and agree with the issues around the functioning of the local authorities, the value that is being placed on them, the way the powers have been stripped away - the Library and Research Service have very helpful documented it over a time - but any of us involved in local decisions know that anecdotally. More important, the people we represent know it, because they come to their local authority when there are moments of frustration and disappointment in their communities.”
“Most importantly, the task force should not just make recommendations but in parallel and at the same time, include an implementation plan in the report for those recommendations because urgency is needed. It was my great honour and privilege to have first been elected to serve on Dublin City Council in 2004. It is an enormous privilege to represent your local community. It is an incredible honour to be a voice for the people you live with and the people you get the opportunity to serve. That is in stark contrast to the frustrations of being an elected representative because, as other Members have said, you are the front line. You truly are the front line in the housing crisis, if there is a water crisis, in Covid or if there is a storm.”
“It was in excess of an additional €2 billion and that is not including the housing budgets. It consisted of the urban regeneration and development fund, URDF, the rates waivers and we made progress on the Moorhead report for the councillors. That is all really welcome but if this local democracy task force is to have any meaning, it must be timebound. It must be well informed with strong representation from the elected members of our 31 local authorities. I believe there should be representatives also from both Houses; the Seanad and the Dáil. Many of us have served at local authority level and now have the privilege to work in the Seanad and the Dáil so we can see it from both sides and contribute to strengthening our local democracy.”
“I welcome the Minister of State. I thank him for coming to the House and gabhaim comhghairdeas on his appointment as Minister of State with responsibility for local government. He is an excellent choice for the role, having served as a local authority member and knowing the local authority system as intimately as he does. I have great confidence and ambition for the outcome of his local government task force. If I was to say nothing else to him today, I would tell him to get on with it more than anything. There are 31 independent local authorities in our country. We have had many reports on our local government system, many of them in the recent past. I am very pleased that in the term of the previous Government between 2020 and 2024, we made significant investment in local government.”
“Each one of the young people who have engaged have come for different reasons but they have found in Cabra For Youth a place to be themselves, a safe and friendly space, and a place to make friends, develop relationships and to find out who they are. It is really important but youth work is largely undervalued in our society. I would like us to have a debate in the House on future funding of youth work services. It is very important that it seen not as informal, casual, or nice to have but as an essential in our communities.”
“I thank everybody who worked on putting together the strategic plan, most particularly the young people and their families and the staff. We have an incredible project leader in Mary Carroll, and Anita Meehan, our administrator, is the glue that holds it all together. They are an example of how, when a community comes together over time, with some funding from the State, it can have a direct impact and effect on young people's lives and the lives of their families, their outcomes and their ability to achieve their full potential. I am proud to say that, over the past 17 years, a number of young people and their families have come through. None of us goes through life without needing help and support at a certain time.”
“I congratulate the young people, families, staff and volunteers at Cabra For Youth, which is a youth service in Cabra founded over 17 years ago that engages with young people and their families. It operates both a mainstream youth service and a justice youth diversion programme. The service engages with young people from eight years of age right up into their early adult years. Last week, Cabra For Youth launched its strategic plan for the next five years. I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Mary Butler, for making time to come out to the youth service and launch the plan. I am one of the founding directors of that youth service, going back 17 years, along with other founding directors: Joey Furlong, Paul O' Farrell and Niall Counihan. We have new directors now, including Paul Hennelly, Catriona Kenny and Peter Treanor.”
“It is only two weeks ago that I was calling for a debate with the Minister on the future of the post office network. I would appreciate if the Deputy Leader could get a date from the Minister for that. I welcome and congratulate all of the recipients of the community heritage funding of €1.9 million that was announced this morning. The individuals who give their time voluntarily in all of our communities to protect and champion our heritage need to be congratulated, and I do that this morning.”
“We, as a European nation and a country that will take the European Presidency in 2026, must insist on an immediate suspension of the EU-Israel agreement. Anything short of that is meaningless. We must insist that Europe act as one, take greater authority and use our relationships internationally, with the UN and others, to achieve an immediate ceasefire and the provision and access of humanitarian aid. It is humanitarian aid - the most basic aid - that we should be insisting be released into Gaza. Anything short of that is just not good enough. I have raised it many times but we raise it again and every day we need to insist until there is some change in the situation. On a completely local issue, I am sure many Senators met the post office masters yesterday. It is an issue I have raised a number of times in this and the previous Seanad.”
“We awoke this morning to the continuing, distressing news from Gaza. It is almost impossible to listen, watch and witness the wilful, deliberate starvation and murder of innocent people in Gaza. We also have the news today of the shooting in Washington D.C. and the two deceased there. Obviously, I offer all of our condolences and sympathies to those who knew and loved those two innocent individuals in Washington D.C. However, more than 50,000 men, women and children have lost their lives in Gaza. It is continuing as we stand or sit here. Our inability to effect any change in Israel's wilful, deliberate killing of innocent people is incredibly distressing. We all welcome the announcement from Ms Kaja Kallas to review the EU-Israel agreement, but it is just not enough.”
“Fianna Fáil as a party in government is absolutely committed to rising to the challenge of climate change and restoring biodiversity, which is our natural heritage, via a just transition to a sustainable society and circular economy. It behoves all of us to do all we can in our daily lives to ensure our biodiversity and natural heritage is championed and protected, because it is not just an environmental issue but a social issue, one that will pay dividends not just for us in our daily lives, but for future generations to come. I suggest, in the week that is in it, we all recommit ourselves in whatever small way we can to protecting and championing our biodiversity.”
“On the northside we have the Royal Canal and on the southside there is the Grand Canal. The Royal Canal is one of the most spectacular places in the city. It is a haven for wildlife. Up by Broombridge on the banks of the Royal Canal there is a nest with five swan's eggs in it, and that swan is guarding them with her life. That is just one example of biodiversity in the capital. I congratulate everybody who is involved in championing biodiversity on a daily basis in their ordinary lives. I want to champion all of the State organisations which give of their time and have built biodiversity protection into their policies and operations.”
“They are not the only people in Dublin Central, however, engaged in championing our biodiversity and natural heritage. It is happening at Mud Island in North Strand, as well as in Ballybough. Who would have thought there would be somewhere like the Mud Island Community Garden in an area that everybody associates with the concrete jungle of the inner city? It is a spectacular garden. Senator Noonan has visited it . One sees the seasons change, the wildlife, the plants and the growth. It is such a beautiful oasis of nature and biodiversity in the city. In Phibsborough there is a great biodiversity group which holds a Buzzfest event every year. The Buzzfest is about bees, primarily the bees of our Royal Canal. We in the city are blessed to have our canals.”
“However, it is the people who daily give their time to protect our natural heritage and environment who are the real heroes of biodiversity. I am talking about people who are involved in groups like Connecting Cabra, which is a grassroots organization of people who live in Cabra and come together. Cabra was built as a post-war local authority housing estate. Many of the houses have very large back gardens but very modest front gardens and not an enormous amount of green space. The members of Connecting Cabra have come together and are reintroducing nature in a myriad of different ways. I congratulate them on the work they have done to date and I encourage anybody who has free time this weekend to go out and visit them in Cabra. They will be a holding a biodiversity festival this weekend.”
“It gives me great pleasure every day to come in and see the seasons changing, and the way the grass has been cut or not cut, the flowers growing and the wildlife that encourages. We are very privileged to serve here, and that privilege is greatly enhanced by the surroundings we all get to enjoy on a daily basis. It is easy to take that for granted and I do not want to do that. I acknowledge the very fine work that is undertaken. When talking about biodiversity closer to home, there are a number of groups in my constituency. The Minister spoke about the Government's commitment, the State's commitment and the amount of resources that have been put in place to encourage and support biodiversity, not just in an informal way but in statutory activities, and that is very welcome.”
“I welcome the Minister of State and join with him and colleagues in offering deepest sympathies and condolences to the Minister of State, Deputy O’Sullivan, on the death of his dear sister, Anne Cullinane. May she rest in peace. I acknowledge the presence of the former Minister of State with responsibility for biodiversity, Senator Malcolm Noonan. During the previous Oireachtas term, I had the great pleasure of welcoming him to the great botanic gardens my constituency, where he launched the latest national biodiversity plan. It is with great pleasure that we get to take time today to talk about biodiversity, because it is probably one of the nicest subjects politicians can get to engage in. I commend the staff of Leinster House who take care of our biodiversity here on the grounds.”
“We all know that there are over 960 post offices in Ireland. They provide not just a postal service but huge social value as well. I ask the Leader to arrange a debate with the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Deputy Peter Burke, to come to the House and have a debate on the future of the post offices. Our own colleague, Councillor Tom O'Callaghan, is a postmaster. Postmasters throughout the country have done enormous work campaigning to save our post offices. The House should support them and we should have a debate on the future of the post office network.”
“They go out to support very young people, including infants - our youngest citizens - and their parents. They support them in social ways, medical ways and with a whole holistic approach to their wellness and well-being. They do so to increase their capacity and confidence and ensure they succeed in those early days, weeks, months and years. Being a parent is probably the most challenging job any human being can undertake. The home visitors are there with new parents and new babies in those early days, weeks and months. They give them support in a way that is accessible to them, is meaningful to them and adds real value. I want to give a huge shoutout to the home visitors in the north inner city. As I am speaking here today, they are probably visiting parents and their children in their homes. I return to the subject of our post offices.”
“We are all concerned by and occupied with our helplessness in the face of this starvation and genocide and the human tragedy taking place. This House must call again today for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages and unrestricted access for humanitarian aid. Anything less than that is inhumane. The Fianna Fáil group reiterates that call. The National College of Ireland, located in the Dublin docklands in my constituency, is an incredible centre of excellence in education. Everybody associates the college with third level education but its early learning initiative is incredibly special. I give a huge shout-out today to the home visitors from that early learning initiative, particularly those who visit the north inner city.”
“The first issue I raise on behalf of the Fianna Fail group is the ongoing genocide and starvation in Gaza. Since 2 March, no humanitarian aid has been delivered to Gaza, with a global hunger monitor warning that more than half a million people, which is a quarter of the population, are facing starvation. RTÉ News is reporting that the United Nations aid chief, Mr. Tom Fletcher, has very strongly criticised the Israeli-initiated and US-backed humanitarian aid distribution plan for Gaza. Mr. Fletcher described the plan as a "fig leaf for further violence and displacement" of Palestinians in the war-torn territory. He called it a "cynical sideshow" and a "deliberate distraction". He said those words in an address to the UN Security Council.”
“We should work collectively and on a cross-party basis to ensure that the strategy the Minister brings forward is as strong and as effective as possible in order that it sends out that strong signal that we want to protect and respect workers and that it sends a signal to An Garda Síochána, to the courts and to anybody else who is going to be engaged in this that it is a serious crime and it is one that we want to see prosecuted.”
“Where a community is engaged and there are dedicated, professional youth workers, and justice youth workers to support not just the young person and his or her families but schools and the wider community, it is highly effective in reducing crime both in a retail space and across the board. Finally, I encourage the Minister, as the new Minister for Justice, to continue this work. I take on board the point made that we already have a crime of assault. We have a crime of assault, assault with harm and assault with serious harm. What we are suggesting is that there should be a further category of crime where it is an attack on somebody who is in the service industry. In this instance we spoke about retail workers but it could be anybody in the service industry.”
“I am a founding director of a community-led justice youth diversion programme that dates back over 14 or 15 years. I commend the Department of Justice, in particular everybody who works in the justice youth space. I commend the Department of Justice, as departmental officials have been incredibly strong in supporting justice youth work, certainly in my own community, and have been highly responsive. I am speaking as a voluntary director of a justice youth service and a youth service. The Department has helped us to respond as a community, because ours is a community-led justice youth service, to the needs.”
“In this instance, we are saying that we think it is really important that we respect and protect retail workers. That is why this Bill has received unanimous support, for which I am greatly appreciative. The contributions have been really valuable. I thank the Minister for accepting the contributions and committing to take them on board when the Department deliberates on the development of a retail crime strategy. On the protection of people and workers, in this instance it is largely people who are in the minorities. It is young people and, typically, non-nationals. It can also be people who work on their own in a retail setting. As these people are very vulnerable, it is right that we send a signal that we think they need to be protected.”
“I thank the Minister and the Government for not opposing this Bill. It is an appropriate response considering the cross-party support for the sentiment behind this Bill. The support exists because we all really do value workers. We value retail workers. I take the points made by the other contributors. I refer to the debate on the need to, potentially, expand the definition of workers who would be protected by this Bill or this legislative activity. Like all Members, I completely accept that legislation alone is not the panacea. In fact, it is only a small contribution to fixing the many challenges our society has. When we introduce legislation, we send a very strong signal that we, as a society and a body politic, place an importance on an issue.”
“I hope all of the House will support the Bill because it is something on which there is unanimity. I believe we all value our retailers. We value not only the service they provide, but the dimension they bring to our community and society in creating a safe place where we can all go to have human interaction. It should be a place that we, as a society, value. We should send out a strong indication that we want to protect retail workers and that any attack on retail workers is completely unacceptable.”
“I have seen it in my community in Dublin Central in areas such as Cabra, Dorset Street and Phibsborough, and right across the community. On main streets such as Henry Street and Mary Street, I have seen retailers close their doors. The big indicator for me a couple of years ago on this issue was the fact that retailers were not only struggling to hire staff and then retain those staff and customers, but they also had to take on the extra cost, an estimated €40,000 per year per retailer in Ireland, to hire security staff. Those security staff wore body cameras before gardaí did. That is an indication of where things had got to in the retail space. It is, therefore, a really serious issue. I thank the Minister for being here and giving consideration to this Bill.”
“For them, the welfare and safety of their staff are paramount. Ultimately, they find that recruiting and retaining staff, despite increases to the minimum wage and pay, are increasingly difficult. It is a challenge for the employers, including the retailers, but also for all of us because we all need a pint of milk, slice of bread, mobile phone top-up or meter card top-up. If the shops are not available, it will diminish each and every one of our communities. When things started to open up during the Covid pandemic, the people who were first to get back into action and start to serve us all after the first responders and emergency services were the retailers. They were the ones who opened their shops, put up the plastic screens and wore the masks, and they have taken the brunt of it.”
“It is a matter of the human experience of going to work to serve other people to provide them with what are largely essential services only to be faced sometimes with what is casual, mindless rudeness and aggression but also what can be sexist commentary and attacks, racist attacks, discriminatory and aggressive language, physical abuse and assault. It takes a real toll on people, including on their daily lives. Some retailers have said it is not just an attack on their livelihoods but also on their lives. Some independent retailers own their shops and have taken on the liability associated with providing a service in the community. They have taken on the financial risk of buying in stock to provide it to their customers, and they have also taken on the financial and economic responsibility of employing staff.”
“Local shops throughout the country are represented by it. It has been campaigning on the issue of retail crime for quite some time. It undertook a survey of its members and the results confirmed for it what it had been hearing anecdotally. For some, it is somewhat startling to hear that 93% of the RGDATA members surveyed had been victims of shoplifting. More than 25% of its members had been subjected to a violent robbery, and that could include the use of weapons, including knives and guns. Forty percent of RGDATA's members have been subjected to fraudulent activity. These are the headline statistics but we should consider what they mean in real terms for those working in retail.”