Face coverings will be mandatory in shops, retail settings and centres from today.
However, there has been some concern from retailers, with Retail Ireland saying it should not fall to the retailer to enforce these measures.
Manager of the Market Cross Shopping Centre in Kilkenny, Leslie Cleere, says more guidance is needed for retail staff in dealing with this.
“We’re into completely unknown territory when you’re asking why they’re not wearing one, it’s quite a personal question.” she said.
“Either the person is willing to offering the information which would be great but if they don’t, you don’t know, maybe they’re agitated, maybe there on the spectrum, maybe they can’t communicate correctly about why they’re not wearing it, and then you’re into a different situation so I think there’s a lot of training to be done for staff in how to deal with that”.
