People in holiday homes in Donegal must remain here now until the travel ban is lifted.
This was the message from Garda Commissioner Drew Harris at a press briefing this morning.
He said if people are currently staying in their holiday homes that is now considered their place of residence and they should not leave during the current restrictions.
However, he stressed that Gardai also now have the power to turn people back if they are only now traveling to holiday homes.
It had been suggested earlier that people holidaying should leave and that Gardai could knock on doors and remove them.
But this now appears not to be the case.
Gardaí have been given new powers to restrict people’s movements and gatherings for the next five days under emergency health legislation brought in last month.
Commissioner Harris said gardaí have been seeing people leave their homes for non-essential reasons.
He said there was a small minority who were breaching the advice but gardaí will continue to engage with the community to act together to stem the spread of Covid-19.
He said gardaí were also seeing cyclists going further than 2km from their homes to exercise and said that had to stop.
Commissioner Harris said delivering Easter eggs was not an essential journey and people will be asked to return home.
On the issue of holiday homes, Mr Harris said if people are currently staying in their holiday homes that is now considered their place of residence and they should not leave.
He said people should not be travelling to holiday homes.
Minister for Health Simon Harris signed the regulations last night enabling gardaí to enforce the new law, but these only remain in force until Easter Sunday.
Penalties for non-compliance include fines of up to €2,500 and up to six months in prison.
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