Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said that new legislation to give gardaí additional powers of enforcement will allow them to close down pubs for up to a month if they are in breach of public health guidelines, and they will do so when a publican refuses to comply with the rules.
Minister McEntee said that the new legislation comes as breaches of guidelines in some pubs increased and will allow gardaí to deal with "repeat offenders" who have consistently breached the guidelines.
Ms McEntee told RTÉ's Today with Claire Byrne that gardaí will always seek to engage with publicans to ensure guidelines are not being breached.