Varadkar: Inquiry into how state handled covid pandemic should be completed within a year

A shopper wearing a facemask on Grafton Street in Dublin with covid-19 signs in the window. Leo Varadkar says there was a lot of pressure from the public and media to lock down the country.

An inquiry into how the State handled the covid pandemic will be up and running next year with the aim to have it concluded within 12 months, the Taoiseach has said.

The draft Terms of Reference of the inquiry have been "seen and cleared" by Coalition leaders with a memo set to go to Cabinet within weeks, Leo Varadkar said.

Mr Varadkar has also said he regrets the decision by the Government to introduce Ireland’s third and final lockdown in December 2021 to battle the Omicron variant.

Speaking to reporters in Seoul, South Korea, Mr Varadkar said the covid inquiry will not include the likes of text messages between government officials — similar to the UK inquiry. While that sort of probe “might be very entertaining”, he says he is unsure what it will achieve.

Mr Varadkar said: “It’s (the memo) ready to go. The terms of reference are agreed in principle, as is the format, so the next couple of weeks ... up and running next year I think realistically by the time we’ve identified and agreed people who will do it.

He said the aim is to have a chairperson and a number of people who are experts in different fields, and it may be difficult to “find good people” if the inquiry was to drag on for years “so we want to try and avoid that.”  The inquiry will be possibly chaired by a judge, Mr Varadkar said.

The Government's preference is to have the inquiry done quickly, he said.

“I've seen a lot of inquiries go on for six, seven, eight years. I'm not not sure what will be served by that. So [I] would like to see it done in less than a year - a year at most - but that's not something you control once it’s set up. It has to do its business,” the Taoiseach added.

Mr Varadkar said the inquiry panel may not be able to form findings as a certain standard of proof of evidence is required before making a finding.

His particular interest is in getting an assessment “as to what the long-term consequences of short-term decisions are.”

“The terms of reference are going to be more about trying to establish exactly what happened.” 

Public pressure

He claimed there was a lot of pressure from the public and media to lock down the country with strict restrictions and to do so quickly.

“There was a lot of public pressure and even pressure from media and society in general, to lockdown quickly and lockdown hard.

Mr Varadkar recently apologised to the former chief medical officer Dr Tomy Holohan for personalised criticisms over lockdown advice Nphet issued in December 20202, admitting "it wasn't fair".

“But I think we're now two or three years later, seeing some of the impacts, not of covid the virus but of lockdowns on people's mental health, on education, on the health service — screening that didn't happen, diagnoses that didn't happen,” he said.

When asked if the Government locked down too hard, given Ireland had some of the toughest and longest restrictions in Europe, Mr Varadkar said it’s not a yes or no answer because the country also had among the lowest number of deaths in Europe.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

However, he indicated regret over the final lockdown in December 2021 with restrictions not lifting until late January 2022.

He said: “My sense, and it is only my sense, is the first lockdown, it was absolutely the right thing to do. We didn’t know what we were dealing with. New virus, high mortality rate, no vaccines, absolutely the right thing to do.

“The final lockdown, the one done for Omicron, I understand why that decision was made. I was there. But I’m not convinced that the benefits of that outweighed the non-benefits,” he said.

Omicron restrictions included pubs, restaurants, and cinemas closing by 8pm with customers required to show a covid vaccine pass to enter venues.

There were also restrictions on household gatherings.

Overall, the Government “handled it very well” Mr Varadkar said but added, “nobody gets everything right.”