Today Garda Commissioner Drew Harris revealed the details behind plans for the enforcement of the lockdown this Easter weekend. For the next four days, the guards will be organising checkpoints up and down the country to be sure people stay with in their two kilometre home radius.
He said:
"The regulations are backing up all the advice and restrictions that have been advised by the CMO and we are working with the rest of society in making sure that that advice is followed through on.
"If people see something that is of concern to them, where there’s a risk of the illness being spread on, then they should let us know so we can act, arrive there, deal with the situation, and hopefully then, resolve it."
"We’ve received regulations , they’ve been signed by the Minister, but again our approach not changing, we are a community based policing service, we’re applying the same tact as we have all week.
Going on this video from Des Cahill shot on an overpass above the N11, people are heading for the hills.
7.30pm. Traffic is bumper to bumper on the N11 South, heading towards Wicklow & Wexford. Imagine the cost and time of Gardai used, in having to set up road checks, because some people cannot seem to bear respecting our #COVID19 travel restrictions. Shameful. pic.twitter.com/CHJBddE188
— Des Cahill (@sportsdes) April 8, 2020
Now the road has clearly been converted to one lane of traffic, which adds to the tailback. One would imagine there is a Garda checkpoint awaiting all of these people, hence the traffic jam.
How and ever, look at the northbound lane, where there is no traffic. That is how every road in this country should look this evening, and every evening until Sunday. This is a densely populated area of south Dublin but considering the hour this video was recorded, it clear that an awful lot of people are heading south in the direction of Wicklow and Wexford. How many of them are on an essential journey?
This is troubling.
The good news is that the likely Garda checkpoint at the end of this road will have lead to a whole host of fines, which is more money for the State to fight Covid-19
