Inquiry into State’s handling of Covid crisis to be set up by middle of the year

The Government intends to establish an inquiry into the State’s handling of the Covid-19 crisis by the middle of the year.

Senior Government sources said that key decisions about the format of the inquiry – including whether it would hold sessions in public – had not yet been made. However, consideration is being given currently to who would chair the inquiry, and what its terms of reference would be.

There are concerns at senior levels that a public-facing element could invite huge levels of media attention which could interfere with the functioning of the inquiry or lead those involved in the response to “lawyer up”. However, there is still a preference for some form of public-facing element.

Government sources said the inquiry would not be designed to find fault with or praise individuals or bodies, but focus on establishing facts to inform future responses to public health emergencies.

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Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said in the Dáil earlier this month that the inquiry was being “scoped out” and “we hope to have it established by the Oireachtas mid-year”. However, he said he “cannot possibly” put a time on how long it will run for.

The Government has yet to publish a report drawn up by a group headed by Hugh Brady, president of Imperial College London. The report of the Public Health Reform Expert Advisory Group was submitted to the Department of Health in September.

Two sources with knowledge of the situation said it recommended an overhaul of public health in Ireland, with a new public health strategy and a new statutory agency to be set up. The Department of Health is expected to scope out the design and functions and revert to the Government later this year on the design and functions of the new body.

The report is also said to recommend that a public health representative be put on the HSE board, as well as a new oversight group, strengthened data collection and investment in information technology.

The move comes after a former member of the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) strongly criticised aspects of the State’s management of the pandemic. Prof Martin Cormican wrote in a paper summarising his personal view that Ireland “excessively limited basic freedoms” for too long and failed to take adequate account of the “collateral damage” to health and wellbeing, as well as depending “too much on fear to influence behaviour”.

Prof Cormican was the HSE clinical lead for infection prevention and control when the pandemic hit. A noted sceptic on the widespread use of masks, he delivered the paper to the Irish Society of Clinical Microbiologists last November.