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The Gardaí received new powers late Wednesday night to prosecute people found making unnecessary trips, and informed sources said those powers had been used since early Thursday morning. Some people who were detained at the Garda checkpoints accepted that their travels were not essential and agreed to return home.
The new regulation establishes that no one should “leave their place of residence without a reasonable excuse”, even for essential jobs, appointments related to health or care for vulnerable people, among others.
While Gardaí only used prosecution as a last resort, anyone convicted of the criminal offense could be fined up to 2,500 euros and imprisoned for up to six months.
As a major Garda operation, consisting of more than 130 static checkpoints and thousands of rolling checkpoints, was underway, traffic congestion was reported in some areas, with very long delays on the M1 near the border.
Transport Infrastructure Ireland reported that the volume of traffic had decreased in the morning rush hours by between 27% and 66% in the 15 places it tracked, compared to the same day last year. The largest decrease was recorded on the M1 near Jonesborough, where it decreased by 66 percent.
“Car traffic volumes on the radial routes to Dublin this morning generally show a marked decrease compared to Thursday of last week,” TII said.
“Car traffic is down 9% on the N7 at Citywest and 11% on the M1 at Swords to Dublin Airport, 20% less on the M4 at Celbridge-Maynooth and 11% on the M11 at Bray . “
Bus chaos
On the other hand, bus drivers have said there was “chaos” in some bus services in Dublin on Thursday due to excessive numbers of passengers seeking to ride the services, their union has said.
The National Union of Buses and Railways said its members experienced difficulties trying to accommodate passengers in services on various routes after the new 25 percent capacity restriction on Level 5 went into effect at midnight.
The union’s general secretary, Dermot O’Leary, said there have been “several tight spots and places where passengers have tried in large numbers to access Dublin bus services.”
“Some drivers describe it as ‘chaos’ as an excessive number of commuters attempted to board buses on a variety of routes. Some Bus Éireann services have also experienced capacity limitations where demand has exceeded reduced Level 5 capacity. “
“Fortunately (at least so far) no confrontation or conflict has been reported, although we are well aware that frustration can lead to such a scenario. We cannot blame the passengers, who are struggling to get to their place of work, at a time that is tailored to their particular needs, rather than when services can, or can, be scheduled. “
Dublin Bus did not comment on the union’s claims.
Bus Éireann said most of its services were operating near revised capacity levels of 25 percent Thursday morning.
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