RGDATA Director General Tara Buckley represented independent retailers at the first meeting of the Deposit & Return Scheme Stakeholder sub group meeting organised by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment.

The group heard from various stakeholders on the potential design of a new DRS scheme to deliver on the programme for Government and Waste Action Plan commitments.

The DRS scheme will include plastic bottles and aluminium cans and will be producer funded. If you have any views on this issue please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

RGDATA and other insurance reform campaigners remain concerned about the impact of personal injury pay outs on insurance costs after the Judicial Council deferred a decision on new guidelines to February 20.

Media reports suggest that the judges are considering recommending that pay outs are more in line with those in Northern Ireland instead of much lower EU payouts.

This is causing serious concerns amongst campaigners who want an 80% reduction in pay outs for fully recoverable, minor injuries.

“We will not see the required reduction in shop insurance costs to sustainable levels unless we bring the pay outs for very minor, fully recoverable bumps and bruises right down to EU levels. Bringing Irish pay outs in line with those in Northern Ireland will not address this issue and will certainly not deliver the sort of reductions in insurance costs that Irish shops desperately need to stay competitive,” says RGDATA Director General Tara Buckley.

You can read the press release from the Alliance for Insurance Reform here.

Read the Irish Times report on what the judges are considering here

The Judicial Council is due to consider draft Judicial Personal Injuries Guidelines on Friday (5/2/21). Once Guidelines are adopted they will be published on the Judicial Council website.

The Guidelines will replace the Book of Quantum when Section 99 of the Judicial Council Act 2019, which is currently scheduled for this July, commences.

RGDATA is supporting the Alliance for Insurance Reform’s call for payouts for fully recoverable minor injuries to be slashed by 80%. Read the editorial by AIR to be published in the Irish Independent this week here.

The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) has opened a consultation on the PSO Levy to generators (PSO is the levy applied to electricity bills to support renewable energy schemes). You can make your voice heard by making a submission.

Click here for details. This consultation relates specifically to calculation of PSO payments to generators. RGDATA would like to hear your views on this. Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 RGDATA Director General Tara Buckley appeared on national and local media this week to highlight the need for essential retail and food logistics workers to get vaccinated against Covid-19. Buckley was interviewed on radio and by online and national print media about RGDATA highlighting how independent retailers and their staff are dealing with increasingly antagonistic anti-maskers and why frontline retail and food logistics workers should be next in line for the Covid 19 vaccine after the most vulnerable and frontline health workers. Click here to read the article that appeared in journal.ie.

RGDATA has received a reply to its letter to Health Minister Stephen Donnelly regarding early vaccinations for essential retail and food logistics workers. Unfortunately, It does not make any commitments regarding moving this important group of frontline workers up the table for an earlier vaccine. You can read the response here.

RGDATA supports the call by the Alliance for Insurance Reform that the Judicial Council reduce the payouts for minor fully recoverable injuries by 80%. The Judicial Council is currently preparing Personal Injuries Guidelines to replace the Book of Quantum and is scheduled to adopt and publish new judicial guidelines on damages for personal injuries by 31st July at the latest. These new guidelines will replace the current Book of Quantum guidelines as to the amounts that may be awarded in personal injury claims. It is understood that draft guidelines are to be considered at a meeting of the full Judicial Council on 5 February. “RGDATA supports this call as this is one of the key actions that will assist in reducing the cost of shop insurance,” says Tara Buckley, Director General RGDATA. You can read the AIR press release here.

RGDATA would like to hear from members who  are experiencing any issues relating to Covid-19 or Brexit so we can raise them with Government. A meeting of the Retail Forum chaired by Minister for Retail Damien English takes place on Thursday. Email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you have any concerns that Government needs to address.

RGDATA Director General Tara Buckley will attend a virtual conference call on the Government’s proposals to introduce a Deposit & Return scheme for PET bottles on Wednesday 27/1. If you have any issues you want raised please email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. RGDATA has made a submission on the public consultation on the DRS scheme. You can read it here.

The SME Taskforce, established by the government following calls by RGDATA and the Local Jobs Alliance for better representation for SMEs at policy making level, has published its first report. The report make a number of recommendations including rebalancing the duty of care to make insurance costs for SMEs more affordable. You can read the full report here.