Almost half of all businesses have been a victim of crime in the past two years, it emerged today.
The Small Firms Association (SFA) warned while billions of euro are being spent on security, the incidence, extent, scope and costs associated with crime are on the increase.
SFA director Avine McNally said the business community is under constant attack from planned professional criminality.
“There is an enormous psychological price being paid by business people as crime is now more organised, more professional, more ruthless and more pervasive,” she said.
In its national business crime survey, the SFA found 45 per cent of firms had been targeted in the last 24 months, with 66 per cent of these reporting two or more incidents.
While the costs incurred per single incident of crime ranged from €50 to €50,000, the average was €2,920.
Elsewhere it showed capital expenditure on crime protection was €2 billion - an average €9,277 per firm - with maintenance costs of security equipment in the region of €270 million per annum.
Almost a fifth of the 171 respondents revealed they had been a victim of theft of stock, with 14 per cent suffering criminal damage; 13 per cent theft of cash; 11 per cent burglary; 10 per cent theft of property; 9 per cent credit/cheque card fraud; and 3 per cent internal fraud. Just 1 per cent had endured an armed robbery or extortion.
Mr McNally said small firms have also been the victims of a range of online crimes including internet scams, identity fraud, phishing and data theft.
“The small business community is under constant siege from planned, professional criminality and the conviction rates being achieved in Ireland fall far short of what is being achieved in other jurisdictions, particularly the UK,” she continued.
“The latest figures available from the gardaí show that the annualised number of headline cases reported was 284,131. The number of convictions achieved was 41,792.
“From these figures it appears there is very little chance of Irish criminals ever being brought to justice, leaving the victims of crime in a sense of hopelessness and despair.”
PA