Irish Rail apologises for lack of social distancing on train 

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Irish Rail has apologised for a lack of social distancing on one of their trains yesterday.

A photo has circulated on social media showing apparent overcrowding on the Galway to Dublin train.

It shows a crowd of people sitting on the floor of the train with little to no social distancing.

Barry Kenny from Irish Rail says they are working to make sure this does not happen again.

“Well firstly, obviously, sorry to people who travelled on that service,” he said.

“Our service at the moment are operating at 50% of capacity.

“So while in a normal circumstance there would have been obviously sufficient seating for everybody, in fact comfortably so on that service, 50% of the seats are currently blocked off.”

Last night, the acting Chief Medical Officer is warning complacency is now the biggest challenge to avoiding a resurgence of Covid-19 in Ireland.

Dr Ronan Glynn said: "All it would take for Covid-19 to regain a foothold in our communities is complacency.

"As the pandemic accelerates around the world, we must remain vigilant here in Ireland. Every day, in our individual actions, we have the power to limit the spread of this virus.

"Our priority going forward has to be the reopening of schools and resumption of non-Covid-19 healthcare services – and every time we stay two metres apart, wash our hands, practice good respiratory etiquette and wear a face covering, we are working towards those shared goals together."

Yesterday, 10 new cases of coronavirus were confirmed in Ireland.

Last week, gardaí escorted two people off trains for refusing to wear face coverings.

The use of face masks or coverings was made mandatory on July 29.

One person was taken off the Translink Dublin to Belfast Enterprise service on Wednesday and the second person was taken off a Dublin to Cork train service on Thursday.

Irish Rail said the man at the centre of Thursday’s incident was one of 204 passengers on the train.