Shoplifting in Co Donegal has more than doubled in recent years, according to latest figures.
Recorded shoplifting offences in 2003 in the county were at 161 but rose to 384 by 2024, an increase of 138.5%.
The figures were obtained by Irish MEP Cynthia Ní Mhurchú.
The figures form the CSO show that shoplifting has dramatically increased across most counties in Ireland over the past 20 years.
Ms Ní Mhurchú has called for tough action against the minority of people who feel it is acceptable to steal from hard working small family retail businesses.
Ní Mhurchú welcomed the fact that shoplifting in Donegal fell between 2023 and 2024 by 10% from 427 to 384 but raised concerns that the long-term trajectory for shoplifting in Donegal has gone upwards.
Amongst the measures Ní Mhurchú is calling for to immediately address shoplifting is for Government to introduce the Retail Crime Strategy which was promised in the Programme for Government.
She also called for other measures included in the Programme for Government to be introduced immediately.
Ní Mhurchú is calling for:
* Mandatory prison sentences for anyone caught shoplifting on more than one occasion
* Update the Public Order Acts to allow a prolific offender of retail crime to be excluded from a premises for a certain period of time.
* Support targeted garda operations to tackle retail crime and remove assets from those suspected of organised retail theft.
* Introduce a specific offence of assaulting a retail worker.
* End 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.
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