If it is only for card transactions, I can't really see the problem. The margins on leap cards are so low that a credit card fee on top of it would wipe it out entirely and the shop would effectively lose money on the transaction.
It also cost extra money to make the sale. A card transaction can take up to a minute which costs about 15 cent at minimum wage while a cash transaction takes a fraction of the time. You can double that to cover overheads. Meanwhile you could have somebody trying to buy a cup of coffee at 1000% gross margin walk out due to the size of the queue. The margin on all of these transactions is so low that the only reason the shops sell the stuff at all is in the hope that you might buy a cup of coffee.
If it is just for card transactions, you do have a choice to nip to the cashpoint outside Pearse station and get the cash out.
You can blame Irish Rail for not selling the tickets and the banks for the cost and time that credit card transactions take but it is a bit unfair to single out the shop.
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