The uptake of wearing face masks on public transport is as low as 30 per cent in some parts of the country, according to the National Bus and Rail Union.
The latest Department of Health figures from June showed 41 percent of those surveyed report wearing a face covering in public.
General Secretary of the NBRU Dermot O'Leary says people are still not getting the message.
“It has improved over the past number of weeks, but we’re still not at a stage where you have anything near a hundred percent, in actual fact, in Dublin it’s been as low as thirty or forty percent in some cases,” he said.
“It’s still not at the level you’d expect it to be from a compulsory point of view.”
The Union’s comments come ahead of new laws which will make it compulsory to wear a face covering on public transport from Monday.
Fines of up to €2,500 and/or six months in jail will be the penalty for failing to wear a face covering.
The laws will allow people be stopped from boarding if they are not wearing a mask, and allow a driver or inspectors to inform gardaí of any rule breaches.
Children under 13 and people with special needs will be exempt.
Yesterday saw the biggest number of reported new cases of Covid-19 in almost a month.
25 were confirmed along with one additional death.
Dr Martin Daly, former head of the Irish Medical Organisation, says new measures will have to be considered if case numbers continue to rise:
“There is a great deal of uneasiness about some of the relaxation around sporting events and social events, and I think that the NPHET committee will have to take all that into consideration if the case numbers begin to rise progressively.”
