Ireland is currently under Level 3 restrictions.
The government is to consider “graduated fines” to further enforce the country’s Covid restrictions.
The Cabinet will meet later on today to discuss the possibility of introducing a selection of individual fines for disobeying specific rules within the government’s Living With Covid-19 plan.
According to the Irish Mirror, these fines would vary from €50 to €200, and would relate to not wearing face masks in shops or on public transport, or travelling outside of your county for unnecessary reasons.
Similar, but significantly larger fines, are currently in place in other countries like Australia, where non-compliance of Covid regulations such as self-isolation could land you a fine of thousands.
Currently, the whole of Ireland is under Level 3 restrictions, which limits indoor gatherings to six people from two households and bans all outside-county travel.
The National Public Health Emergency Team has since warned of the rising in Covid cases across the country. The team wrote to the government last night, stating that they are “deeply concerned” about the rise in cases.
This comes after Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said he had discussed the possibility of moving to Level 4 restrictions with Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan following a conversation over the weekend.
Minister Donnelly told the Dáil yesterday that he was surprised to hear NPHET’s recommendation of moving to Level 5, but that “added restrictions” could remain a possibility.
506 cases of Covid-19 were recorded across the country yesterday, and one additional death.
