Another 13 pubs found selling alcohol without any food

Another 13 pubs have been found selling alcohol without any food in the past week, gardaí have said.

This brings to 138 the number of licensed premises where suspected breaches of current Covid-19 public health guidelines were detected since July 3rd.

While files are being prepared for the Director of Public Prosecutions in each of these cases gardaí say they have not broken any regulations or laws though they have breached public health Covid-19 guidelines for which there are no penalties.

The contents of the files could however be used to object to a pub licence when it comes up for renewal.

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In all of the new cases last week “gardaí found customers consuming alcohol, but no evidence of food also being consumed and no evidence of receipts to show that food had been sold”.

Deputy Commissioner John Twomey welcomed the continued high level of compliance among licensed premises.

“However, there remains a minority who are putting their employees, their customers and their local community at risk of getting Covid-19,” he said, adding all members of the public needed to now flatten the “new curve” of the virus.

“Customers of such licensed premises also have a responsibility to help reduce the spread of Covid-19 to protect their family, friends and neighbours.”

Similarly, gardaí working on the localised lockdown in counties Kildare, Offaly and Laois found overwhelming compliance from members of the public.

Issuing its weekly update on its Covid-19 policing operation, Garda Headquarters said 354 checkpoints were conducted last weekend in Kildare, Laois and Offaly and surrounding counties in a bid to encourage compliance with the localised lockdown. Of those checkpoints, some 164 were in the three counties and 190 were in surrounding counties.

Gardaí are continuing to operate a new Covid-19 contingency roster. This involves most Garda frontline personnel working 12-hours shifts for four days followed by a four-day break.

That roster, which has increased working hours in the Garda by about 25 per cent, has been extended to the end of the year for the two Covid-19 operations - Operative Navigation, for licensed premises, and Operation Fanacht for lockdown measures.