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27th Apr 2020

Garda presence to increase at Irish beaches ahead of bank holiday weekend

Sarah Finnan

Increased Garda presence is expected across Irish beaches and other popular beauty spots around the country this weekend for the May bank holiday.

Gardaí will be out in force this weekend, patrolling Irish beaches in an effort to ensure the public continues to adhere to social distancing measures put in place by the government.

Operation Fanacht will come into effect tomorrow to discourage people from making unnecessary travel arrangements, with Gardaí introducing a number of additional checkpoints on main roads as well as mobile checkpoints and extra patrols across the country’s beaches and other popular beauty spots.

The initiative began back in March ahead of the Easter weekend and saw officers deployed around the country to ensure that travel restrictions are being adhered to.

The current public health measures are in place until May 5th, however, they will be re-evaluated in the coming days with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar expected to deliver an update.

According to the most recent update shared to Twitter by Minister for Health Simon Harris, it’s important for us to “keep our battle going”.

“Another crucial week coming up here, let’s keep our battle going. We’ve seen progress, we’ve seen the reproductive rate fall below 1 – in fact we now think it’s about 0.5 – we will see hopefully by the end of this a plan as to how we would begin to reopen our country… we can do it and we’re gonna do it. ”

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