New figures show Gardaí were spat or coughed at eighty times since Covid-19 travel restrictions were introduced on April 8th.
Gardaí say people have been charged with criminal offences in a quarter of cases in which emergency Covid-19 policing regulations were used.
Commissioner Drew Harris said today that in spite of a continued high level of compliance spitting and coughing attacks on gardaí are continuing.
Eighty such incidents have occurred in the six weeks that the public health restrictions have been in place, ten in the last week.
Gardaí say they have also had to use spitguards, which is deemed a use of force, sixty times.
They processed over 27,600 vetting applications for Covid related roles including medical, healthcare and voluntary positions
Regulations brought in as part of the lockdown have also been enforced 263 times – two of those were under instruction from a medical professional.
Sixty-six incidents lead to a charge or summons being issued while the rest are still under investigation.
