Gardai broke up a group of young people playing soccer who were breaking Covid-19 regulations.
The game was taking place at a green area close to a leisure centre in Portlaoise, Co Laois on Saturday afternoon.
Under the current public health guidelines in relation to exercise, people may meet with people from one other household in outdoor settings when taking exercise.
No indoor or outdoor exercise group activities, including those involving children, should take place – so therefore the gathering was in violation of this.
A Garda spokesperson confirmed that officers were called to the area and, following discussions with a number of young people, they complied with the guidelines and stopped.
“Gardaí in Portlaoise were called to a recreational area earlier this afternoon. A group of youths had allegedly been playing a soccer match. Upon arrival to the scene, there were a number of youths in the area.
“Gardaí engaged with these youths who complied and dispersed from the area. “An Garda Síochána has been consistent in our graduated policing response to supporting Public Health Regulations and guidelines in line with our tradition of policing by consent,” the spokesperson added.
“This has seen Garda members engage, explain, encourage and, as a last resort, enforce.
“The Covid-19 pandemic remains a public health crisis and An Garda Síochána continues to appeal to all citizens to comply with Public Health Guidelines and Regulations, in particular essential journeys, in order to continue to save lives.”
Separately, Gardai revealed they had been very busy across the county on Saturday – handing out a number of fines for breaches of Covid-19 regulations.
They said: “We have issued fines to a number of people today that chose to ignore the public health guidelines. It’s all about transmission and reducing contacts.
“We will be continuing our checkpoints and high visibility patrols at public amenities across our Division in support of public health regulations”.
