Gardai have revealed that they uncovered 26 licensed premises during their checks on Friday that breached health regulations and licensing laws and in some cases were even serving alcohol to customers without evidence of food being sold.
Over a four-hour period on Friday, Gardai conducted 6,830 checks on licensed premises throughout the country.
Between 7pm and midnight under Operation Navigation, Gardai found 2,785 individual licensed premises which had opened for business.
These premises were checked for their compliance to The Health Act 1947 (Section 31A-Temporary Restrictions) (COVID-19) (No.3) Regulations 2020.
Where potential breaches of the Public Health Regulations are identified, and where a person does not comply with regulations, a file is submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions for a direction as to how to proceed.
And while the vast majority were in compliance, 26 of the places checked were in breach of regulations despite Gardai even giving them a chance to rectify the situation with files now being prepared for the DPP.
In many of these cases, Gardaí found customers consuming alcohol with no evidence of food being consumed and no evidence of receipts to show that food had been sold.
Gardaí also observed a lack of adherence to public health advice such as allowing large groups at the one table, little to no social distancing, no advisory signage, and no COVID-19 contact tracing being recorded.
Deputy Commissioner of Policing and Security, John Twomey said: "The significant number of visits conducted by Gardaí found a large level of compliance among licensed premises. This is very welcome.
"However, we remain concerned that a minority are potentially operating in breach of the regulations. In doing so, they are putting the health of their customers and staff and everyone they come into contact with after at risk of getting COVID-19.
"We are sending a clear message to such premises that we will be opposing their liquor license renewal applications in September unless they come into compliance.
"In addition, the public has shown great restraint and responsibility to date in adhering to the public health guidelines. The reality is that COVID-19 is still here. We all have an individual responsibility to ensure we continue to play our part in reducing the spread of COVID-19 to protect our family, friends and neighbours."
