Vivienne Clarke
Fines for anyone not adhering to Covid-19 restrictions will be in place within days, the Minister for Justice has confirmed.
Speaking on Newstalk, Helen McEntee said the new regulations would be ready very soon. The necessary legislation had been signed by the President but the Garda Pulse system still needs to be updated, she said.
The legislation was passed by the Dáil and Seanad on Friday but the specifics of how much people could be fined for not wearing a facemask when required to or for travelling more than 5km from their homes during the Level 5 restrictions is yet to be stipulated.
Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said these would confirmed in the coming week but he signalled that the initial fine for not wearing a face mask when required to do so could be €50.
The Bill allows for fines of up to €1,000 for those who organise house parties and this penalty comes into effect immediately.
Gardaí said the Covid fines were legislation they could implement, Ms McEntee told Morning Ireland, with repercussions for people defying the restrictions.
Ms McEntee also said gardaí would continue to work on ensuring that any protests or rallies remained peaceful because everyone had the right to protest. Gardaí would have the right to intervene if such events became violent.
Responding to reports that some tracers had been asked to use their own laptops, Ms McEntee said that may have been the case during training, but that no tracers would be working without an HSE laptop.
The “huge numbers” currently being tested had put pressure on the contact tracing system, but new staff were being hired every week, she said.
