Almost 1,000 shoplifting incidents in Waterford last year
Figures indicate a dramatic trend upwards in shoplifting offences across most counties in the past 20 years.
New figures from the Central Statistics Office reveal that there were 994 recorded incidents of shoplifting in Waterford in 2024.
This figure is an 18% drop since 2023.
In neighbouring Wexford last year, there were 903 recorded incidents of shoplifting.
The figures indicate a dramatic trend upwards in shoplifting offences across most counties in the past 20 years.
There were 650 recorded incidents of shoplifting in the Waterford Garda Division in 2003. This rose to 994 recorded incidents of shoplifting in Waterford in 2024, an increase of 53%.
This increase is the lowest in the country, with neighbouring Tipperary and Wexford recording increases of 227% and 207% respectively.
Speaking this week, Ireland South MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú expressed concerns regarding the sharp rise of such offences across the last decade.
She has called for tougher action "against the minority of people who feel it is acceptable to steal from hard-working small family retail businesses".
To tackle the issue, she has called for mandatory prison sentences for anyone caught shoplifting on more than one occasion.
She has also made calls for Government to introduce the Retail Crime Strategy, which was promised in the Programme for Government, and for an update on the Public Order Acts to allow a prolific offender of retail crime to be excluded from a premises for a certain period of time.
Ní Mhurchú has asked for additional supports to be offered to targeted garda operations, which tackle retail crime and remove assets from those suspected of organised retail theft, and for the introduction of a specific offence of assaulting a retail worker.
She also called for an end to the practice of "retail defamation", where someone can sue a retailer for defamation if they are stopped with the bona fide belief that they have stolen something from the shop.
Ní Mhurchú did, however, welcome that the number of recorded offences in Waterford decreased between 2023 and 2024, attributing it to "more focused Garda actions of late".
She praised Gardai "for beginning to make progress against shoplifters".
