The Minister for Justice has said new garda powers under debate in the Dáil will “pave the way” for the reopening of the rest of the country’s pubs.

The legislation will hand Gardaí the power to immediately shut down any pub found to be in breach of public health guidelines.

Opposition TDs have reacted angrily to the plan – warning that the ‘draconian’ proposals represent a “massive overreach by the Government.”

Speaking to Kieran Cuddihy on The Hard Shoulder this evening, Justice Minister Helen McEntee said the new laws will make is easier to reopen pubs that don’t serve food.

“I think what is really important about this legislation is that, I believe, it paves the way for wet pubs if you want to call them that - pubs that are not serving food - to open,” she said.

Social Distancing measures in place in Toners Pub on Baggot Street in Dublin, 30-06-2020. Image: Sam Boal/RollingNews

She said the Health Minister Stephen Donnelly is currently drafting a new set of guidelines for pubs and restaurants which will now have the power to enforce.

“What had been required was that you serve a substantial meal of up to €9,” she said.

“What we are now saying is that staff have to have face coverings, you have to be seated, there has to be a lead person in a group and there has to be social distancing,” she said.

“These are all the kind of things we had been looking at when potentially looking to open the pubs.

“It has not happened yet and I understand there is frustration with publicans out there but I think as we set out the new roadmap, which we will be publishing on September 13th, I hope that we can set out a roadmap for all of our publicans and this legislation along with Stephen Donnelly’s new statutory requirements will pave the way for that.”

Inside the 'Gravediggers' pub beside Glasnevin cemetery, Dublin, 10-04-2014. Image: Brian Lawless/PA Archive/PA Images

Minister McEntee said the legislation will be fast-tracked through the Oireachtas and could be in front of the President as early as next week.

“In terms of the pubs, what I am saying is that this will help us and I believe it will be a very good tool to allow us to open the pubs,” she said. “But in saying that we have to guided by public health at all stages.

“I personally would like to see us get to a point where we can do that and I think publicans have put a lot of effort to get there.

“There is a lot of work that has gone into premises that are not even open yet, in anticipation that they would have all of these measures in place and I think we need to acknowledge that.

“I can’t tell you the timelines because that is still being worked on but I hope we can get to that point and I think this will be a positive part of that.”

File photo of Gardaí. Image: Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland

The new legislation will give Gardaí the power to close any licenced premises for the remainder of the day for a first offence.

A second breach could lead to a three-day closure, a third could see a week-long closure while a fourth could lead to closure for a month.

She said it would have been a “step too far” to consider handing Gardaí powers to shut down house parties.

“It is important to say that at no stage did I want to or did we look at allowing Gardaí to go into people’s homes,” she said.

“I think that is a step too far and I think we need to treat people like adults and say, ‘we are in the middle of a pandemic and we are asking you to comply with what we are putting place; we have put that into law but we have decided it would be a step too far to make it a penal provision.’”

She said the restrictions on the gatherings in the home are written into law; however, there are no penalties for breaching them.

“The Gardaí have had a fantastic relationship with communities over the last number of months,” she said.

“People for the most part have complied and while we are starting to see little pockets where things are maybe not working the way we want them to, I don’t think the answer is to go in with a sledge hammer to crack a nut.

“I think we need to go in in a gradual way, try and bring people with us and treat people with respect and that is what we are trying to do.”