Wearing of face masks in retail settings becomes mandatory from today

The rules will not apply to children under 13 or anyone who can not wear one due to physical or mental incapacity. File picture

The wearing of face masks in retail settings becomes mandatory from today.

Regulations to enforce the compulsory wearing of face coverings on public transport came into effect last month.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin said retail staff will be required to wear face coverings unless there is a partition or a space of two metres between them and customers.

The rules will not apply to children under 13 or anyone who can not wear one due to physical or mental incapacity.

People could be fined €2,500 for not wearing a mask in shops and shopping centres.

Duncan Smith from Retail Excellence said retailers do have the power to call the gardaí over non compliance, but don't expect they will have to.

“We don’t want to get down that route,” said Mr Smith.

“We’re looking for the public’s compliance on it and we expect that that’s going to be the case.

“It’s not something that we’re not now used to. It’s been on the cards now for a couple of weeks.

“And as I say, compliance has gone up significantly.” 

The news comes after Ireland recorded 68 new cases of Covid-19 yesterday.

No new deaths were reported.

46 of the cases came from Kildare, Offaly and Laois where local restrictions were put in place on Friday.

People in those counties are not permitted to travel outside their home county.

“We continue to see cases linked to the outbreaks in counties where additional public health measures have been introduced. This was expected and we will continue to monitor closely,” said Dr Ronan Glynn, Acting Chief Medical Officer.