I started off by paying a visit to Shane Gleeson who runs the Spar Shop on Catherine Street.

I certainly loved all the activities.

We would have had the Frisbee competition many times over the years and they're fantastic people, great fun.

Especially our shop in Castle Troy, we were directly across from UL and we got fantastic business and fun with them for the whole period.

The sports thing that they've been running as well, the international sports event, again that's been run a few times before and it was fantastic.

The guys in UL are very, very professional at running these things.

So delighted to see them.

Did it negatively impact business?

I started off by paying a visit to Shane Gleeson, who runs the Spar Shop on Catherine Street.

I certainly loved all the activities.

We would have had the Frisbee competition many times over the years and they're fantastic people, great fun.

Especially our shop in Castle Troy, we were directly across from UL and we got fantastic business and fun with them for the whole period.

The sports thing that they've been running as well, the international sports event, again that's been run a few times before and it was fantastic.

The guys in UL are very, very professional at running these things, so delighted to see them.

And obviously any activity in the town is good.

Did it negatively impact business?

How much of an increase have you noticed now at the petrol and diesel pumps this lunchtime?

It's gotten very, very high in the last couple of weeks.

We've gone to 210 today, for example.

I'm hearing every third or fourth customer coming into the shop is angry, upset.

No, they're not blaming us.

They know it's nothing to do with the individual shop.

They know it's the Middle East and all that.

The €2.10 that you're talking about, that fuel, when would you have ordered that,

Shane Gleeson, Carolina and Laszlo talk to Live95's Lauren Byrne about the new business venture.

I got possession of this old unit, which was originally my father's shop.

So I grew up behind the counter in that shop.

I'd been serving there 52 years ago because we started at the age of nine.

So emotionally, we were kind of bonded to the unit.

We managed to buy it back about two years ago.

So I was very anxious to get a very good coffee.

How has the collaboration been, you know, from start to finish and seeing the finished product here today?

so how how what what what led from was was it directly then after spending time there you came back here or did you travel a bit more

so end up uh running into covid in vietnam okay which was kind of cool kind of cool experience much better than you guys over here for sure um yeah i was in england but it was still shit yeah where things are half open, half closed.

At least in Vietnam, what they did was they closed everything.

They shut the airports so people weren't coming in.

And then when they did open the airports, people would have to go into quarantine for a while and they keep tabs on them.

So if there was a breakout, they'd shut it down.

So there was actually no COVID there for a good while.

He's probably just winding you up and you don't realise it.

You're saying that the road closures that are being implemented to facilitate them will cut it?

We're very happy with the vast majority of the program, to be honest.

There's only one element that we're unhappy with.

Um, and in fact, we'd like even more activities in the city center.

The issue we have is that one of the locations is the main entry point to the city, from Raheen, and we have tried this before.

We did it in August 2024, and it was a disaster for footfall for Limerick retailers.

It cut our trade heavily.

... uh, you have a problem with them.

It's also true to say that there are an awful lot of jobs that can't get filled right now that could be filled by people on social welfare.

There absolutely are.

I would say that every employer I know is short of staff at the moment Um, whether it's even the carpenters, the plumbers, the fitters coming into me in the shop every day, there's a very big shortage of apprentices taken on those positions.

Um, they're starting at finding out they don't like the work or they're not used to physical work and they're walking away.

Um, like in my experience, that does work for nearly everybody who's willing to work.

Uh, we've certainly had people who come in from abroad in the country, less than 24 hours, and we've started them working.

So I think there's plenty of work out there.

What about Louise was given the example there of a young lad she knew 21 years of age who has a criminal record would you give him a job in your shop?

... are, are you, would you, w- would you, would it always be the case that you don't sell them to that younger cohort or groups of people, or is it just because of the wildfire warning?

No, it's just because of what I heard, uh, this morning.

It wouldn't have been a thought before that this would be a, a potential issue.

Um, you know, I, I would've thought everybody knew what to do with a disposable barbecue, but clearly not.

Uh, I, I don't know what happened in this case, but I'm presuming somebody threw it in the plastic bin or something, which wouldn't be the cleverest thing in the world.

Um, but, uh, uh, that's a guess on my behalf.

Like, I, I'm only guessing what happened.

Um, a- and I, I just wonder, then, do, do you think, Shane, that it's, it's not so much up to you and retailers to be, you know, providing people with this sort of information?

But I think that is possible that somebody forgets or whatever.

Yeah, we get builders coming in, they go up and get a breakfast roll, a coffee or whatever and come up and it's busy and they forget.

And those kind of people, they're no issue whatsoever.

The guards give them a telephone call, their numbers on the system, and they pop back and pay it, or they pay it over the phone.

The ones that cause the problem, though, are the people that never intended to pay.

And generally, they won't come into the petrol station at all.

They'll fill up and just drive off, literally.

It must be very galling seeing people drive off with your fuel.

I suppose Colin is talking about improving the system of reusable cups, but a key to that, to nudging people in that direction, is a surcharge on single-use cups.

I don't think it'll have any impact.

And I don't think we need another stealth tax.

We're always hurting people's pockets.

We're already over-taxed and over-regulated.

I don't think we need more of the same.

I prefer the approach I'm going for, which is the carrot, and try and encourage people to take their own cup in.

It might partially fund the clean-up.

Mm.

So there is a, a bit of an issue around that, okay? And I dunno if that's what the people are referring to.

But I would see the council as having done a, a very good job in the last two years especially, and the streets are much, much cleaner.

We've nine coffee shops on our street, uh, plus a Spar and plus a Mace.And as I walk up and down the streets, uh, I don't see rubbish on the ground in general.

Now, at the odd time you would, and you do- you have the odd person does it.

And as the lad said earlier, I have seen people depositing their, their own household waste into some of the bins, so that definitely is an issue.

So, and obviously the council are doing their best.

Yeah

We heard from a number of different callers to the programme yesterday, you know, about scenarios in the West and in Kerry, but in Limerick at the moment, I presume long queues

yesterday, was there, for the station? There was long queues everywhere.

I had one of the large local nursing homes ring me only an hour ago wanting to know, is there any way they could secure some supplies? They've worked out they're going to lose half their staff by Monday Uh, they simply won't be able to get into work.

So those kinds of scenarios are obviously very worrying.

The, we have a large number of nurses also came in and said similar things.

They, because we're at the edge of the city, you've a lot of the staff that would maybe live in places like Nina.

So they're driving in half an hour to go over to the UHL or wherever.

heard Sean Defoe our political correspondent talking there about sources suggesting in some of the departments that it's only the official reps would actually be invited in or allowed into these meetings so that'll all have to play out and we'll see how that goes throughout the day but the reality is at a quarter past twelve this lunchtime we have people all across the country Bill like you that are affected and like Shane that puts you and other petrol station and shop owners in a really difficult position doesn't it? You're kind of been asked nearly to pick who you're going to serve.

And you'd nearly wonder, should those sentences run concurrently and consecutively like that? You know, where somebody is out on bail, commits a further crime, and then that sentence runs in conjunction with the previous?

That's the reality.

Like, the law says that they should be consecutive, but the reality is that it isn't, because...

The judge will do their job.

They will give a sentence and they will increase the sentence, but the sentence isn't served anyway.

Like we've had a lady out after three days having had a sentence for three months and having had multiple assault charges against her.

And she was back in our business three days later at the same crack.

I mean, for people that are consistently in recommitting the same crimes in the same premises.

So now they're pretending to steal?

They're pretending to steal.

They'll actually physically put something in their pockets, in their jacket or in a bag.

Then as they walk out of sight around the corner, they'll deposit it back on the shelf, hoping then that you ask them to pay for the product at the counter.

and then they'll immediately start shouting and roaring and making a fuss, hoping to create the scenario that it looks like you've accused them of stealing.

So it's kind of an act, but we've seen it on a number of occasions and across several shops.

So it's clearly organised, it's almost like somebody's reading a textbook on how to do it.

Okay, so just on that, Shane, is there a way that then, can you, do you train your staff to maybe discreetly say it to somebody rather than, you know, bellowing it across the shop floor?