84% of newsagents and convenience store retailers have been the victim of aggressive, violent or threatening behaviour.

Newsagents have said they “cannot act as a censor of what people want to access” after it emerged the current edition of Charlie Hebdo, containing cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, will be on sale in Ireland.

Budget blues in December pushes annual consumer spending down by as much as 7%, according to the National Retail Industry Alliance, who argue the Government’s VAT tax take would rise significantly by moving the budget to February.