Retailers to seek share of bag levy

OUT-of-pocket shopkeepers want the Government to compensate them from the plastic bag levy.

Retailer representative group RGDATA is calling for an urgent meeting with Environment Minister Martin Cullen to ask him for a share of the 15c bag tax.

An RGDATA survey of retailers showed they were facing bills because shoppers were stealing trolleys and baskets.

Retailers claimed the theft of baskets alone was costing small retailers 450 a month.

RGDATA, which represents more than 4,000 retailers nationwide, found that an average of 50 baskets a month, priced at 9 each, were going missing.

Retailers had also had to invest in increased security since the levy was introduced.

Shop staff were finding it impossible to identify customers who had not paid for items they were carrying.

The problem had become so bad that several shops had been forced to place stickers on purchased goods.

Some supermarkets had erected security turnstiles close to shop exits in an effort to clamp down on shoplifters.

RGDATA estimated that the total cost of the levy to shop owners would run to hundreds of thousands of euros before the end of the year.

But the Environment Department has no plans to give a percentage of the levy to retailers.

“This levy couldn’t have been established without the help of retailers and there has been very good co-operation since the tax came in,” a department spokesman said.

“The levy was never intended to make money, rather it was about reducing the number of plastic bags used,” he said.

The tax will gross 2 million a year, which the department will use for recycling projects and environmental awareness programmes.

The department dismissed reports that some bag revenue would be used to improve roads.

“That can’t happen by law, and the amount involved would be too miniscule anyway,” the spokesperson said.

RGDATA director-general Ailish Forde said the levy had also resulted in increased administration costs for shop owners.

And sales had been hit since the tax became law.

More than 5% of retailers had reported a drop in the number of items purchased.

Shop owners were worried that customers would continue to buy fewer items, particularly in convenience stores, because they had no carrier bag.

Some 90% of consumers were using long-life bags, but people buying small items usually had no bag.

“We need to get the exact figures together and put these to the minister,” an RGDATA spokesperson said.

“We know the losses are huge and they still haven’t been fully estimated,” they said.

Retailers are considering seeking at least half of the 2 million to be raised by the levy.

The levy was introduced by the former Environment Minister Noel Dempsey in March.