Gardai will enforce law as pubs reopen
INSPECTIONS BEING CARRIED OUT TO ENSURE PUBS COMPLY WITH PUBLIC HEALTH REGULATIONS
GARDAI carried out 55 inspections on pubs and restaurants in the Dundalk district during the first weekend that licensed premises reopened after lockdown to check that publicans were complying with the new public health guidelines for COVID-19 and there will be a number of prosecutions.
However, Chief Supt Christy Mangan told the meeting of the Dundalk Joint Policing Committee held over Zoom last week, that gardai would not be ‘ the fun police’ and were concentrating on enforcing the law.
The new regulations require that a substantial meal costing at least €9 is served along with alcohol and limits the amount of time customers can spend in the premises to a maximum 105 minutes.
He said that throughout the COVID-19 lockdown period they had carried out inspections on public houses on a regular basis to ensure that they were not breaching the law.
‘We are there to enforce the law, what we can enforce. We are not the fun police,’ he said, adding that they are encouraging people not to engage in risky activities. While they can advise people on what they should do, some people think they could do more than they can. On the whole people were being responsible and adhering to the guidelines.
‘We have had to give out advice to some premises. There will be some prosecutions against some licensed premises,’ he added.
Chief Supt Mangan said that he was very conscious that people had been locked down for months, and gardai arriving in uniform in a restaurant where people are having dinner is ‘not good for the digestive system.’
Supt Gerry Curley also told the meeting that they had been ‘checking in’ on licensed premises during lockdown to ensure that they were closed.
Further inspections were carried out last weekend but the Garda Press office said that figures won’t be released until later in the week and that there won’t be a breakdown of what regions or district the inspections were carried out.