Colin Murphy: In law, we are closer to house arrest than a 5km limit

Covid-19 restrictions say you should not leave home at all ‘without reasonable excuse’ – a rule that‘s broader than it need be, is widely misunderstood and of dubious effectiveness

A Garda checkpoint in Dublin this month: gardaí have issued more than 6,000 fines for ‘non-essential travel’ since the Covid restrictions were introduced. Picture: Artur Widak/NurPhoto

Recent surveys suggest that compliance with public health regulations, though falling, remains high. But what does “compliance” imply? For most people, I think, it means not going into friends’ houses and not going egregiously beyond five kilometres from home.

This law is commonly referred to as the 5k limit, and personal experience suggests that this is indeed how it is being policed. Gardaí at checkpoints seem less interested in what I’m doing than in whether ...