Gardaí have said they are making inquiries into a licenced premises near Croke Park for alleged breaches of Covid-19 regulations as people gathered for yesterday's All-Ireland hurling final.

In a statement, gardaí said they conducted a number of inspections at licenced premises in the Croke Park area yesterday.

It came on the foot of its policing plan for the final and reports of anti-social behaviour and a lack of social distancing among crowds, they said.

Gardaí said a number of premises were asked to temporarily cease trading "in the interest of public safety".

They are now making inquiries into one of these premises for alleged breaches.

An attendance of 40,000 was permitted at yesterday's final between Cork and Limerick, which saw Limerick claim their second All-Ireland in a row following an impressive display.

Meanwhile Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris has said we should not be pitting different sectors against each other and that he was "delighted" to see 40,000 sports fans from Cork and Limerick being able to attend yesterday's All-Ireland final.

"I thought it was a glimpse of normality. But I also understand very much that musicians, artists, people in the live events sector were looking at that and saying 'hang on a second, why can't I be back playing in front of crowds’," Minister Harris said.

He said the expected road map for the live events sector would show how the matter can be "rectified" in the coming weeks.

Labour's Marie Sherlock told RTÉ's Drivetime today that it's "simply unacceptable that one sector would bear the brunt of the Government's caution at this point in time, while a much more liberal attitude has been taken to other sectors".

She said the PUP payment should remain in place for the entertainment sector, for as long as the pandemic lasts.

Separately, event promoter Justin Greene of the Events Industry Alliance has said while members were happy to see good crowds at the All-Ireland final, the Government needed to set a re-opening date for the entertainment industry.

He said: "170,000 people will attend [events] in Northern Ireland over the next four weeks approximately, of which 60% of that number will travel from the Republic of Ireland to those events and it just does not make sense at this stage to not allow and to give us a re-opening date."

Mr Greene said those in the entertainment industry proposed to Government that from 1 September, it would organise events for fully vaccinated people and provide contract tracing to the HSE as required, but these were turned down because of the current rules in relation to the numbers allowed to attend events.