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Justice Minister Helen McEntee has confirmed that there will be no additional powers for the gardaí to enforce the Level 3 restrictions, which will be introduced statewide starting at midnight for three weeks.
Ms McEntee said the Garda still had the power to prosecute organizers of indoor or outdoor gatherings over the limits, which set no more than six people from another household or no more than 25 people at a wedding. .
His comment comes after Tánaiste Leo Varadkar appeared last night to suggest that Gardaí would have powers of execution.
Varadkar said he told RTÉ’s Claire Byrne Live on Monday night that moving all 26 counties to Level 3 would be supported by more enforcement than is in place for Dublin and Donegal, which were already at Level 3.
“A lot of this will be in the law, including staying in your county, except for work or education or to care for someone,” he said.
When asked if garda members would enforce that provision, Varadkar said “the guards will come out,” adding that the government had awarded Ms McEntee additional money on Monday to cover garda overtime.
“We will update the laws, potentially to bring in a different system of fines and so on,” he added, although he did not offer further details on the details of the larger enforcement.
His statements Monday night resulted in both the Association of Garda Representatives (GRA), which represents rank and archived gardaí, and the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (Agsi), which represents sergeants and inspectors, asked for clarity on Tuesday about what new crimes were being created and what new powers the gardaí would have to monitor the pandemic.
However, McEntee confirmed Tuesday that no new powers were being prepared for the latest phase of public health measures.
Last week, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said he was not convinced that giving the garda additional powers in the context of policing a public health pandemic would be good for the Republic. He told the Police Authority that the garda wants to emerge from the pandemic with its strong relationship with the public still intact.
The GRA said Tuesday that its members had always watched by consent, but believed there should be a contribution from the garda to the government’s public health decision-making process during the pandemic.
He believed that any information about changes in law enforcement or the police should be shared with the garda authorities before it occurred and before it was reported to the public.
GRA President Jim Mulligan said Garda members did not know what the changes to the app would be, describing them as “speculative.” He made his comments before McEntee confirmed that no new powers were being introduced.
Mr. Mulligan said he was pleased to hear about the garda’s additional budget for overtime, as crimes such as robbery and robbery, which had plummeted during the previous lockdown period, were now “back in play.”
Criminal offenses
Ms. McEntee cautioned that if the country goes to Level 4 or 5, then she wants it to be a crime to travel outside of one’s county.
Currently Gardaí can only urge the public to adhere to the guidelines and does not have the power to enforce the restrictions, the minister told RTÉ News at One.
There will be more Gardaí at checkpoints across the country in an attempt to engage, educate, encourage and enforce restrictions, he added.
Ms McEntee said the gardaí does not need additional powers to enforce regulations in relation to indoor events, as it was already a crime to organize such an event, she said.
Regarding the marches and public demonstrations, the Gardaí were doing their best, but there was a right to public assembly.
The Minister said that the Government was analyzing what measures worked in other jurisdictions and was analyzing the possibility of fines in situ.
However, that raised the question of what measures would have to be put in place if people refused to pay the fines. “We continue to analyze this,” he said.
Defending the decision
The minister also said that the Government had full confidence in the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) despite ignoring their advice to tighten restrictions to Level 5 to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Earlier, Health Minister Stephen Donnelly also defended the government’s decision to reject a call from the Nphet to move to Level 5 restrictions, saying the state has adequate capacity for intensive care beds.
The government announced last night a tightening of restrictions and a new enforcement campaign, but decided not to follow the advice of public health experts despite warnings that infections would increase if the country did not place itself in an immediate lockdown.
In a significant break with public health councils and after a series of tense meetings between ministers and officials, the Cabinet moved the entire country to Level 3 restrictions from midnight Tuesday for the next three weeks, instead of the Level 5 requested by the medical director. Dr. Tony Holohan.
In an extraordinary attack last night, Mr. Varadkar criticized Dr. Holohan and Nphet for giving the surprise of the Level 5 recommendation on the government without prior notice or consultation on Sunday and also for not thinking about their recommendation for closure.
He said Nphet’s rationale that hospitals would be overwhelmed “was not shared by HSE CEO (Paul Reid) and HSE was not consulted on this.”
Mr. Varadkar also referred to the introduction of improved application options, but did not describe them in detail.
Under Tier 3 restrictions, individuals will be required to remain in their county and may have up to six visitors from a single household.
Indoor gatherings will be prohibited and pubs, restaurants, cafes and bars serving food may remain open for takeaway, delivery and outdoor dining / services for up to 15 people. Dublin’s wet pubs are closed. Nightclubs, discos and casinos remain closed on Level 3.
Publicans have warned that this is an effective closure order for most pubs and that tomorrow, when the restrictions go into effect, 50,000 bar employees will lose their jobs.
ICU beds
Ahead of a cabinet meeting this morning where the consequences of the government’s decision will be discussed, Donnelly said the health service could make the additional ICU beds available quickly if needed.
“Let’s remember that at the height of this, when there were many more people in the hospital and many times more ICU admissions, we did not come close to needing the kind of ICU capacity that the HSE had put in place,” he said. Mr. Donnelly said.
Donnelly said he had spoken to HSE CEO Paul Reid about the issue, who told him he believes there is sufficient capacity in the ICU beds.
When asked if he would take responsibility if the decision to withdraw from public health councils turned out to be wrong, Donnelly responded, “It’s not about who is right and who is wrong.”
“It’s about trying to make the best decision we can take into account the evidence we have,” he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
The minister said the situation had changed since March and that there were other factors to consider in addition to suppressing the virus.
“If we were to consider nothing more than virus suppression, if we didn’t have to consider the entire country, then clearly an argument could be made that says, well, everyone just needs to go home, close deals, don’t leave your home. House.
“And obviously we know that the virus would be suppressed. But we have to make what we think is the best decision on behalf of the whole country, that’s what we have done.
He said Level 3 measures have been shown to work “when we all work hard to put them into practice.”
Also speaking before the cabinet meeting was Green Party leader Eamon Ryan, who said the government had made the right decision not to move to level 5. His colleague, Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien, said the The cabinet struck the right balance “between the economy and public health.”
He asked the Opposition not to “politicize” the matter.
Meanwhile, Dr. Gabriel Scally, a public health expert, has said the “public dispute” between Mr. Varadkar and Nphet was “unedifying.”
Emergency medicine consultant Dr. Chris Luke said doctors shouldn’t run any country. While they have a wealth of medical advice to offer, “you need a 360-degree range of experience to get to the government.”
He added that due to the Covid-19 restrictions there had been a “reduction of the footprint of each emergency department, which means there is less space to see people within emergency departments and outpatient clinics and furthermore you have the threat of the virus over the whole world. ”
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