COVID LOCKUP

With more than 13,000 prosecutions, €775,000 issued in fines and 70 jail sentences, fear's Ireland's become a..

- FERGHAL BLANEY, DANNY DE VAAL

PEOPLE are still being jailed and fined for lockdown offences committed during the pandemic, the Irish Mirror can reveal. 

Our special investigation found there have been more than 13,000 prosecutions under now outdated Covid laws.

There have been fines totalling €775,000 – and more than 70 jail sentences overall.

One man fined €2,000 in 2021 for travelling home to Ireland from abroad to check on his elderly mother is challenging his case.

Two people were jailed for breaching restrictions in the first four months of this year, three years on from the introduction of emergency laws to curb the spread of the virus.

So far in 2023, 1,700 such cases breaches have come before the courts.

The revelations come as the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar warned of a “new wave of Covid” with a 90% case rise this summer.

EXCEPTIONAL

Solicitor Brian Burns insisted prosecutions should be halted as the pandemic is over.

Fianna Fail justice spokesman Jim O’Callaghan has urged judges to be lenient towards Covid offenders.

He said many are “normally law-abiding citizens at an unusual time when ordinary human behaviour was criminalised”.

Mr O’Callaghan said: “There were reasons justifying the enactment of those laws at that time.

“But I would hope that prosecutors take into account the exceptional nature of that when deciding now whether to initiate or persist with prosecutions.