Numbers moving beyond 10km of home increasing
ONE MOTORIST STOPPED IN BANTEER HAD COME FROM MAYO TO SEE HIS GIRLFRIEND
THE latest set of figures released by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) have shown an increase in the number of people across the State travelling more than 10km from their homes.
Gardaí in the Cork North division have also highlighted a number of incidents of people travelling long distances with no reasonable excuse – including one person who was stopped in Newtwopothouse telling officers he had travelled from Clonmel to feed a horse.
The CSO’s ‘Stay Local Indicator’ (SLI) provides a seven-day rolling indicator on movement, providing estimated percentages of people’s travel habits, both nationally and by individual county.
The latest SLI figures recorded a 1.4% increase in the numbers of people travelling beyond a 10km radius of their homes over the week to Friday, February 12 when compared to the previous week, with the CSO saying this indicated “some relaxation of mobility behaviour”.
The SLI is based on statistical analysis of anonymised, aggregated mobile phone activity records Three Ireland, which is aggregated at each electoral division and provided to the Department of Health.
The CSO assured the public that the information collected remained anonymous.
They CSO said the propensity to stay within 10km differed from county to county, depending on local circumstances such as access to services and population density.
For example, rural counties such as Roscommon and Mayo with low levels of urbanisation tended to have the lowest percentage of people staying within 10km of home. Conversely Dublin, which has high levels of urbanisation and services recorded the highest levels of people ‘staying local’.
The figure for Cork showed that 65.9% of the population staying within home during the period in question, representing a -0.9% change from the previous week.
While all 26 counties recording percentage decreases, Cork’s was the second lowest in the State.
However, the figures did show that approximately one-third of Cork people did travel beyond 10km of home during the week.
Fermoy based Garda crime prevention officer John Kelly highlighted other incidents around Cork of people breaking travel restriction without valid excuse.
These included another man stopped in Newtwopothouse claiming that he had travelled to Cork from the Midlands to buy a horse, despite being unable to show any proof of ownership. Another car with five occupants was stopped at the same location with the driver first telling Gardaí they were visiting a friend and then changing their story to say they were visiting a church.
Another man stopped by Gardaí in Banteer said he had travelled from Ballina in Co Mayo to see his girlfriend.
Sgt Kelly said that from his own experience and those of his colleagues, it seemed that numbers breaking travel restrictions had increased as this latest lockdown has progressed.
“Some people seem to be getting a bit more restless and more willing to test the regulations,” he said.
“We have seen people travelling to fast food restaurants miles from their homes and others we suspect of having come from house parties. We have also come across a number of incidents where people are undertaking non-essential work, mostly within the construction sector.
Sgt Kelly said many of these have been issued with €100 fixed penalty notices when they refuse to engage with Gardaí.
“Our policy is to use the ‘four Es’ - Engage, Explain, Encourage and as a last resort Enforce. We will try to avoid enforcement where at all possible, but if we have to take that step, we will,” he warned.