A security analyst and former Irish soldier says deploying the army along the border to stop cross-border travel would be like using a "sledgehammer to crack a nutshell".
Last week, Independent TD for Louth Peter Fitzpatrick called for the army to be placed on the border due to what he says is a "very significant reservoir of infection in Northern Ireland".
Fitzpatrick added that "as an ex-soldier myself, I think it's about time we start to use the Army".
However, Declan Power says this would be virtually impossible to enforce given the number of border crossings and the lack of capacity within the Defence Forces.
While Mr Power criticised the State's "slow" response to tackling covid, he told The Joe Finnegan Show that deploying the army would harm co-operation between law enforcement agencies along the border:
