Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald says the new food service regulations have 'left things open to ridicule'.
The new rules mean that places have to keep a full record of the food and drink that was purchased by every table for 28 days.
Ms McDonald told Pat Kenny: "I think it is astonishing that we discover that there had been no proper consultation with the industry in advance of this coming into being.
"I can't understand why that is the case.
"Let's face it: there has been so much discussion around pubs and hospitality - can they open, and when they might open, and under what circumstances they might open.
"I am dumbstruck at the fact that we now hear annoyance from the industry that there hadn't been a proper consultation or a proper heads up that this was planned".
She described the new regulations as "nuts", adding: "Any rules and regulations need to be operable, they need to be credible, there has to be a public sense and those that actually have to abide by and operate the rules that they're necessary, that they make sense.
"And I just think this has left things open to ridicule, quite frankly, and people raising their eyebrows and throwing their hands up in exasperation".
"Unlike others who feel that perhaps rules will be broken everywhere left, right and centre I think the rule beakers are the exception and not the rule".
On Garda powers to shut pubs which break COVID-19 regulations, she said: "If we're saying that we want to open up the social spaces that are public houses, and I think there are very strong arguments for that, we also have to accept that the authorities will have a strong hand when it comes to enforcement.
"The worst-case scenario, Pat, would be that we take these actions - these moves to loosen things up and to get people back to social interaction and so on - and then we have what some would fear would be a kind of free-for-all and then you have the virus spreading like crazy."
"Nobody wants to go there, so actually I support the idea that you would have strong sanctions and that they're clearly understood and that they are operable.
"I think that is fair enough.
"What's not fair enough is to introduce things that sound a bit wacky and a bit off-beam".
"I appreciate that the Government is handling a very difficult situation, so I don't want to be critical just for the sake of it, but this business of keeping records of 'Did you have jelly and ice-cream or did you go for the apple pie' is just not the place that we should be in this public conversation".
