Irish Examiner view: We have to change our strategy on shoplifting
The most recent figures from the CSO confirmed that two thirds of a 7% increase in theft is attributable to the stealing of goods from shops.
There has been a joke doing the rounds that Britain has changed from being a nation of shopkeepers into a nation of shoplifters.
But the hollow laughter may be on us now as data increasingly points to Ireland following the same path.
The most recent figures from the CSO confirmed that two thirds of a 7% increase in theft is attributable to the stealing of goods from shops.
An even more damning figure emerges when details are subjected to historical analysis.
In Cork City the number of reported incidents has risen by 86% in two decades from 1,440 in 2003 to 2,682 last year.
The city saw a 26.7% increase in shoplifting between 2023 and 2024 alone.
As Fianna Fáil's Aisling Dempsey recently told the Dáil, this is a plague which falls particularly heavily on small businesses.
And it is a malign escalator which often precedes an increase in more serious crime.
Many assertions are made about the reasons for this unacceptable rise in poor behaviour and there are those who believe that the smack of firm government is required.
Ireland South MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú is urging the Government to fast-track its mooted retail crime strategy.
Among the measures she is supporting are banning orders which would prevent a serial offender from entering specified premises.
Other penalties could include mandatory prison terms for anyone caught shoplifting on more than one occasion and the specific offence of assaulting a retail worker.
When the underlying reasons for what can now be considered an epidemic are adduced it is clear that no single solution is available.
Factors include poorly trained, or too few, staff; lack of security personnel; badly designed store layout and absence of support measures such as CCTV, alarms, mirrors or security tagging.
All these issues should be addressed by government education and some pump priming cash.
Tepid police interest is frequently cited as a reason for retailer disillusion.
Ms Ní Mhurchú said owners and managers felt "filing a report with gardaí is hardly worth it" as so many shoplifters are repeat offenders.
It is within the capability of our local forces to change that perception.
That solutions lie close to home was underlined by a survey of more than 400 retailers some 15 months ago.
This found that more than 50% of perpetrators were from the locality, while 48% came from outside the local area.
Only 25% were prosecuted and convicted, with nearly 75% not being pursued by the State.
Of those convicted, only 19% received a custodial sentence.
While commonly-held views about law and order have transitioned to more complex values, the weakest justification for shoplifting is the one which blames “the cost of living.”
It is rarely a credible argument.
In two unconnected cases before the Cork courts last week a 33-year-old woman was jailed after a series of offences which included kicking a staff member at Spar in the groin and other incidents at Tesco Express and Centra.
She had 39 previous convictions, including nine thefts and one attempted robbery.
In a separate case a 36-year-old woman who was caught shoplifting 172 times was jailed for nine months.
Both had addresses with the Cork Simon Community, the charity which provides shelter, support and food for homeless people, many of whom have addiction problems. Some 1,500 men and women turn to them for help each year.
If it is correct — and we think it is — that shoplifting is a conveyor belt to something worse then we have to change our strategy.
More than half of shoplifters commence their activities in their teenage years.
We are way beyond the point of shrugging and saying, “it is just one of those things.”
When the history of travel is explained to future generations, they may greet it with the kind of wide-eyed amazement displayed by early Victorians when they saw their first hippopotamus or received reports from South America by Charles Darwin.
Just out of sight in our collective memory is a period when making a journey overseas required no documents whatsoever.
It ended, like so many things did, with the First World War.
Since then, we have laboured under the requirements of passports, visas, and identity checks of increasing complexity.
These were accelerated by the impact of international terrorism and the increasing momentum of the great migration.
Border security is now a prime concern of every developed nation.
Ireland on Friday confirmed a threefold increase in deportation orders to 1,008 issued so far this year, compared with the same period last year, as policy hardened.
It was accompanied by a significant fall in the number of people seeking asylum in the Republic.
Further reforms to the international protection system are also planned for later this year, a reflection of the reality that its operation has been overtaken by world events.
Simultaneously, two Irish people are caught in a stand-off over the much cherished EU freedom of movement privileges.
They face deportation from Germany for their participation last year in a pro-Palestinian demonstration in Berlin.
Bert Murray, aged 31, and Shane O’Brien, aged 29, have been served with orders requiring them to leave the country by April 21.
Their lawyers are seeking an injunction so an appeal can be mounted.
Against this volatile international climate, the ability to travel between Ireland and Britain remains a haven of relative calm despite a swathe of new requirements being introduced by Westminster and Brussels.
For now, they can come here and we can go there and — despite some complaints about over-officiousness at Dublin Airport — the tried and trusted systems seem to work pretty well.
The Britain’s new electronic travel authorisation (ETA) is not required by our citizens, although it raises concerns for European travellers crossing the border to the North — a popular choice for tourists who want to enjoy the “island of Ireland” experience.
That is 60% of our current foreign market.
Visitors from countries that do not require a short-stay visa to enter Britain are now required to obtain an electronic travel authorisation before travelling, with no exemption for those who fly here and travel to the North.
This additional level of bureaucracy and cost (€18) is seen as a disincentive by an industry which is already made nervous by a stuttering start to the year.
The ETA takes its place among the alphabet soup of acronyms delineating the movement of people across frontiers.
The US has its Esta (electronic system for travel authorization) and the EU is waiting to introduce its delayed Etias (European travel information and authorisation system) which will cost €7, unless you are under 18 or older than 70.
Whether this makes the world a safer place, along with making entry to countries streamlined and smooth, we must wait and see.
What is certain is that vast amounts of data are being collected and that Big Tech will earn lots of money.
An Irish passport will remain a very valuable and convenient possession for many.
While US president Donald Trump and his tech bro collaborators have managed to suck most of the oxygen out of the news atmosphere during the past fortnight, we should pause to remember another American event which introduced us to a vision of great wealth, social climbing, transformation, and change.
Some 100 years ago this week, author F Scott Fitzgerald might have raised a mint julep to celebrate the publication of — one of the defining works of 20th-century literature, and one which resonates today.
In Fitzgerald’s Jazz Age vision of “the American Dream”, money couldn’t buy love or respect for an obsessive millionaire whose life was fated to end in disappointment and rejection.
Nick Carraway, the narrator who carries us through the story, observes of New York’s wealthy elite that they “smashed up things and people and then retreated back into their money”.
Does that sound familiar?
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