NI residents who break southern Covid rules to get postal summonses

Gardaí plan to use registered post to serve court summonses on residents of Northern Ireland who breach Covid-19 travel restrictions in the Republic.

From Monday gardaí were able to fine people from Northern Ireland who travelled into the Republic for non-essential reasons. Previously fines could only be issued to those resident in the State.

Under Garda plans, Northern Ireland residents found in breach of the travel restrictions will have their name and address taken by gardaí. These will be sent to a fixed-charge processing office, which will issue a €100 fine to the person’s address.

Offenders will have 28 days to pay the fine. “Some people will pay this. Most probably won’t,” a senior Garda source said.

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In the event of non-payment, a court summons will be automatically issued to the same address via registered post, and a court date will be scheduled as normal.

The direction of the case will then be at the discretion of the judge. In cases where the judge is happy the summons was served correctly, a court penalty can be issued, even if the offender does not show.

Other judges may give no-show offenders another chance to attend, sources say. Judges also have the power to issue a bench warrant.

Bench warrants and fines will be recorded against offenders’ files and may be enforced the next time they are stopped in the Republic.

Gardaí hope the potential threat of a court summons will be enough to deter non-essential travel into the State, especially by those who engage in frequent cross-Border travel.

Six cases

Six people from the Republic are due before the courts shortly for failure to pay Covid-19 fines. This number is expected to rise over the week as the 28-day payment period expires for more people.

Garda management will be watching the outcome of these cases carefully. Last week the Garda warned potential offenders that court cases would be open to the public and the media.

This is “a double-edged sword”, a Garda source said. “If the courts uphold the fines, it will send a very strong public message. If they don’t, it will send a very, very weak message.”

There is some frustration within the Garda and health authorities over the stubbornly heavy levels of traffic on the roads despite the high case numbers and the increasing number of fines being issued.

So far this year traffic levels have remained steady from week to week. The number of cars on the roads is about 41 per cent of the figures from the same period last year. However, there are significantly more cars on the road compared with the first lockdown period in March and April last year.

“There is a significant amount of people who honestly think they’re complying with the rules but actually aren’t. And there’s a significant minority who don’t care and never will and they’re the ones causing the problem,” a source said.

Gardaí believe the steady numbers on the roads show that people have now decided whether they are essential workers or not and are sticking with that decision.

As well as fining residents of Northern Ireland, gardaí can now issue fines of up to €500 to people travelling to airports or ports for non-essential flights.