A Cork city shopkeeper has called for changes to the legal system to better tackle repeat offenders, as a new survey revealed that 36% of Irish small to medium enterprises were affected by crime in the past 12 months, with the figure as high as 100% for convenience stores.<\/p>\n
ISME\u2019s Business Crime Survey 2025 found that of Irish businesses which experienced crime, 68% were targeted more than once, and that 34% of SMEs spend over \u20ac5,000 annually on crime prevention.<\/p>\n
Willie O\u2019Brien, who runs Spar on MacCurtain St in Cork city, told The Echo that he spends \u20ac40,000 per year on security.<\/p>\n
\u201cRetailers have to incur security costs and cover the costs of losses, while we\u2019re dealing with rising costs for electricity, products, wages, just like everybody else,\u201d said Mr O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n
He highlighted a recent survey by the Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association showing that 100% of retailers surveyed had faced some form of crime in the last 12 months, including shoplifting, break-ins, and extortion.<\/p>\n
A total of 67% of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with Garda response times, and 76% of retailers said they had experienced financial losses, with 36% reporting losses exceeding \u20ac10,000 in a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody is addressing the root of the problem \u2014 the legal system is totally ineffective for dealing with people who have multiple criminality processes against them,\u201d said Mr O\u2019Brien.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe State is bankrolling robbing businesses through free legal aid.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s doing no good to the victims of theft or the culprits, because part of the justice system should be not just restitution, but rehabilitation.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the theft is by the same people, and many of them tend to have addiction issues. Many of them are unwell, with chronic problems \u2014 they\u2019re broken people, and it galls me that a country so wealthy is failing to address their needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said that he has \u201ca degree of sympathy\u201d for these people, but added: \u201cIt can be scary for staff, I have had my moment where I\u2019ve felt intimidated, but I can\u2019t afford to lie down and hide away, because I have a duty of responsibility to my staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve found myself in situations with people who are out of their minds, shouting, roaring, and aggressive, it can be very intimidating. But as far as we allow it to happen, it continues to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Brien added that many shops are facing \u201chuge issues in relation to succession. Children have watched their parents and what they have to endure, and they say: \u2018I\u2019m not doing this\u2019.<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe cost of security is over \u20ac40,000 a year for me, but that\u2019s small in comparison to many of my competitors in similar businesses. More and more people are having to get security. This issue has been going on for years and years and it\u2019s still here, it\u2019s worse it\u2019s getting.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
The most common offences reported in the ISME survey were antisocial behaviour (21%), vandalism (19%), and burglary (17%), while 28% reported increased security costs, 22% faced higher insurance premiums, and 17% had to make expensive physical alterations to premises.<\/p>\n
A total of 78% of all respondents believe the judicial system fails to deter repeat offenders, 85% want more garda\u00ed, and 76% support tougher sentencing.<\/p>\n
ISME chief executive Neil McDonnell said: \u201cIt is encouraging that most SMEs avoided crime over the past year, but the reality for repeat victims is stark.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese businesses are paying more for security, more for insurance, and losing valuable time and productivity.\n <\/p>\n
\u201cSMEs are sending a clear message that they want more garda\u00ed on the streets, tougher sentencing, and smarter use of technology like CCTV.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf repeat offenders are allowed to operate without consequence, the burden will keep falling on the businesses that can least afford it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Cork city shopkeeper has called for changes to the legal system to better tackle repeat offenders, as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[2736,781,79,2737,18,19,17],"class_list":{"0":"post-2275","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-cork-business","9":"tag-cork-news","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-cork-city-centre","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-ie","14":"tag-ireland"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}