RGDATA Director General Tara Buckley participated in a second meeting of the sub group of the Garda Rural Forum (5/5) to hear a presentation about a successful scheme operating in Belfast that targets serial shoplifters and excludes them from shops and certain areas of the city.

The sub group includes representatives from the Gardai; the Department of Justice and retail representatives and is exploring if a similar scheme could be operated throughout the country

RGDATA President Colin Fee and Director General Tara Buckley took part in a Department of Health briefing on Minimum Unit Pricing by Minister of State Frank Feighan on Friday 29/4.

Minister Feighan said he was advising the Cabinet to proceed with the introduction of Minimum Unit Pricing of alcohol with a 10 cent Minimum charge per unit of alcohol. He said the timing of the introduction of the measure was a decision for Cabinet to make. Cabinet is due to meet today. You can read the RGDATA press release here. See response from Sinn Fein here.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar called a meeting of business leaders to get feedback on the Taoiseach’s Thursday 29/4 announcement about the reopening. RGDATA Director General Tara Buckley took part in the 7pm conference call and warned businesses preparing to reopen to be ready to deal with aggressive anti-maskers and Covid deniers.

Buckley also raised Minimum Unit Pricing of Alcohol and told the Tánaiste, Minister for Retail Damien English and Minister Robert Troy that RGDATA supported MUP but border country retailers were extremely concerned about the plan for Ireland to go it alone.

“Retailers in border counties, and further down the country, have experience on this. Every time there is a significant price differential - Irish shoppers will go North in their droves to purchase cheap alcohol. While they are there they will buy all their other shopping. Not just food and personal care but clothes, shoes, electrical goods, jewellery - everything. This will be devastating for shops in September when they have just got back up and running and want to try and make up for all the lost time.” Buckley urged them to represent the retail sector and concentrate their efforts on getting Northern Ireland to introduce MUP at the same time.

RGDATA Director General Tara Buckley took part in the first meeting of the Garda National Retail Forum of 2021 on Thursday 29/4 and she raised the ongoing daily incidences of aggressive anti-maskers and Covid deniers causing much stress for independent shops and supermarkets.

The frustration of dealing with serial shoplifters was raised and RGDATA said it would support and participate in any initiative to address practical measures that the Gardai could take to deal with the issue. The Gardai stressed that all incidents of aggressive behaviour, shoplifting and theft should be reported to local gardai.

RGDATA has made a complaint to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission regarding an ongoing campaign by a discount supermarket saying it is “misleading and unsubstantiated” as there are no details provided to back up the claims made by the participants about how much they have “saved” as a result of swapping their shopping to the discount supermarket. RGDATA will keep members updated on the progress of the complaint.

RGDATA is contacting Government Ministers this week to urge them to wait until an all-island approach is possible before introducing Minimum Unit Pricing (MUP) for alcohol.

“The Government originally said it would wait to introduce MUP in tandem with Northern Ireland. However, since Northern Ireland has indicated that it won’t come in there until 2022, all indications are that some Irish Government Ministers want to proceed with the introduction of Minimum Unit Pricing in September.  RGDATA will be making it clear to Government that this will have a significant impact on shopping patterns and will drive people North to buy cheap booze and do all their other shopping on the same trip,” says Tara Buckley, Director General RGDATA.

RGDATA is urging members to contact their local Ministers and TDs this week to make their views known. A member email will be issued later today with all the details.

Make Personal Injuries Assessment Board a quasi-judicial body: Alliance for Insurance Reform

AIR has called on the Government to take this “once on a lifetime opportunity” to reform PIAB and make it a quasi-judicial body in its submission on the reforms needed to make Ireland’s Personal Injuries Assessment Board a better fit for purpose. RGDATA also made a submission. Read the AIR submission here. RGDATA submission here

Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe has responded to RGDATA’s call for an expert to adjudicate on the premium reductions that insurance companies should pass on to shop owners and others as a result of the new Judicial Guidelines on Personal Injury Pay outs and other insurance reforms.

The Minister does not refer to the appointment of an expert to adjudicate on premiums but says the Government is giving the new reforms time to work. You can read the letter here. RGDATA and the Alliance for Insurance Reform continue to campaign for lower premiums.

RGDATA Director General Tara Buckley will attend a webinar hosted by the Personal Injuries Assessment Board on Wednesday, May 5th next, on the new Personal Injuries Guidelines, which go-live from this Saturday April 24th.

The event will be officially introduced by the Minister of State at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Robert Troy T.D., and will be addressed by a number of speakers.

If you have any comments, you would like Tara to make, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.