People who do not have business at marts are asked not to attend marts at the present time due to the outbreak of the coronavirus (Covid-19), according to the Mart Managers of Ireland.
However, sales which had been planned for today and tomorrow, Thursday and Friday, March 12 and 13, will go ahead as planned, according to Mart Managers of Ireland chairperson and manager of Donegal Co-op Livestock Mart Eimear McGuinness.
Speaking to AgriLand, McGuinness said: “Any [mart manager members] that have sales planned for today and tomorrow are all going ahead but they are advising everyone that has no business in the mart not to be there.
If we’re told by the department otherwise, and things change, we’ll go with that; but we’ll just play it by ear [until then].
The chairperson noted that, under Government guidelines announced by the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, gatherings of over 100 people should be cancelled.
“It’s a hard one to call. Anything less than 100 people have not been cancelled.
“What we’d be asking is that the people that have no business at the mart not to attend the mart.”
So far, there have been 43 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the country, according to the Health Service Executive (HSE).