Ms Deirdre Hanlon:

The Deputy is right that face coverings are important. We are moving to introduce mandatory face coverings in taxis. The first priority was to arrange it for mass transit, namely, buses, trains and trams, on which large numbers of people travel together. This has been introduced. We understand the compliance levels are very high. The NTA has been in constant touch with the operators of the services and we hear that compliance rates are typically in the mid 90s and in some cases 100%. There is particularly strong compliance when the vehicles are more full at peak hours on buses and trams.