Judge dismisses case against man stopped at Covid checkpoint at start of pandemic

, Castleblayney, Co Monaghan. At the time there had been 3,849 cases of Covid reported and 98 deaths. People were being urged to avoid non-essential travel and legislation had been drafted allowing gardaí to enforce travel restrictions.In a submission to the court, defence solicitor Ciarán Mulholland said gardaí had used an “unlawful Covid checkpoint” to “indirectly enforce public health advice” without any statutory basis.

He said that normally gardaí can only exercise their powers when “a probable cause, genuine opinion or reasonable suspicion is present”. He said it is clear no such powers existed at the time. Although previous case law has established that gardaí can approach members of the public informally to make inquiries, this does not apply to traffic stops, Mr Mulholland said.

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