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07th Oct 2020

Micheál Martin confirms fines are being considered for enforcement of Covid-19 restrictions

Alan Loughnane

Micheál Martin

The Government Oversight Committee met on Wednesday morning.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said that fines are being considered as part of the effort to enforce Covid-19 restrictions.

Speaking in the Dáil, Martin said the State’s Oversight Committee had met on Wednesday morning to discuss ways to enforce the Level 3 restrictions.

“The Government Oversight Committee met this morning, chaired by the Secretary General of my department, with a view to stronger enforcement around Level 3 restrictions,” Martin said.

“We’re particularly concerned about Northern Ireland.

“People talk about red zones and so on, Northern Ireland is now a significantly challenging situation for the north in terms of the very, very high numbers but clearly the overspill into the Republic and the consequences that could be there.

“So we have to deal with that as well. As I said the oversight group met this morning, we’re looking at the whole area of fines, for example, in terms of traffic and so on.”

Level 3 restrictions came into place across Ireland at midnight on Tuesday with members of the public advised not to travel outside their county except for essential journeys.

Gardaí around the country have set up 132 checkpoints as part of Operation Fanacht, which is aimed at encouraging the public to adhere to health guidelines.

It’s part of an effort to halt the spread of Covid-19 after an escalation of cases in recent days.

In Northern Ireland, the Department of Health reported an additional 828 cases of Covid-19 over the last 24 hours.

4,417 cases have been reported in the last seven days, bringing the overall total number of cases confirmed in the region to 16,187.

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