Shoplifters face ban from shops they’ve robbed
CSNA CEO Vincent Jennings warned the proposed new law will only be effective if it is rigorously enforced
Print2 September 2026
Shoplifters will be banned from shopping in areas they have repeatedly targeted as part of a new strategy to tackle retail crime, the Irish Mail on Sunday has learned.
The measure was discussed at a high-level meeting attended by Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan, his junior ministerial colleagues and the most senior civil servants in the Department of Justice earlier this year.
In response to queries, the department this weekend confirmed the initiative will form part of a new Retail Crime Strategy that will be published ‘in the coming months’.
‘Surge in retail thefts’
The plan to ban thieves from shopping areas comes amid a surge in retail thefts across the country.
Central Statistics Office (CSO) data recorded 33,913 thefts from shops in the year leading up to the first three months of 2026 – averaging more than 90 incidents every day and costing Irish businesses roughly €4.4 million a day. The problem is being exacerbated by chronic overcrowding in our prisons, with some shoplifters – released under the ‘revolving door’ system – back targeting the very same stores the following day.
A legal source told the MoS: ‘Aside from if you are convicted with sex offences, drugs or a very violent assault, people are being jailed and getting out on the same day.
People with 150 convictions for shoplifting are getting sentenced but at the moment they are going to prison and getting out the same day only to return the following day to steal in the shops where they stole and were convicted of shoplifting.’
Tackling retail crime was one of the pledges made under the Programme for Government.
Barring orders
Under the new strategy, the department confirmed repeat shoplifters will be hit with barring orders to prevent them from returning to retail areas ‘People are jailed and are out the same day’ and stores they have previously targeted.
Despite the ongoing struggle to significantly boost garda numbers – another key Programme for Government pledge – the department said the new strategy will also involve ‘high visibility policing’ and ‘improved’ information sharing between retailers and local officers.
A Department of Justice spokesman, said: ‘Work is well advanced on the Government’s new Retail Crime Strategy, which will be published over the coming months.
‘A number of measures are being taken to address retail crime.
‘Together with ongoing high visibility policing by An Garda Síochána, further measures are under consideration, such as improving data sharing between retailers and gardaí to support enforcement, expanding the use of community sanctions for retail crime and updating the Public Order Acts to allow prolific offenders to be excluded from a retail premises for a certain period of time.’
The proposal to introduce barring orders against shoplifters was welcomed by the advocacy group representing small grocery shops and newsagents.
However, Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association (CSNA) CEO Vincent Jennings warned the proposed new law will only be effective if it is rigorously enforced.
He said: ‘It’s got to be administered by the Gardaí. Generally speaking, we don’t need new laws but we need gardaí to implement them, we need the courts to uphold them and we need sentences that are commiserate with the offence and, unfortunately, we don’t seem to have that.’
He added: ‘They need to start putting flesh on those promises they made in the Programme for Government because it’s two years on now and we have lost a lot of money along the way.’
Read more: CSNA reminds retailers of youth employment rules
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