Tánaiste wants covid-19 inquiry set up 'before this government comes to a closure'

Tánaiste Micheál Martin (left) met with President Sahle-Work Zewde (right) to discuss aid and development between Ireland and Ethiopia. Photo: Phil Behan, DFA

The covid-19 inquiry will have to be set up before mid-September, Tánaiste Micheál Martin has said, adding he regrets it has not happened yet.

The Government announced earlier this year a review will be held but the process appears to have stalled with terms of reference not yet published. Mr Martin said he prefers the term “evaluation” for how this will play out rather than inquiry.

“I regret that we haven’t brought this to a conclusion, I think we should bring it to a conclusion shortly,” he said. "It will have to be set up before this government comes to a closure so I’d like to have it done certainly before the Autumn re-start.” 

The Dáil will resume in mid-September after TD's summer break, and by then he would like to have “the proposal published and announced and people appointed”, he said.

Mr Martin, who was Taoiseach from 2020 to 2022, said it is very important to evaluate the pandemic years. “There’s been some evaluation from a public health perspective, but I’ve no issue with evaluating how we did,” he said, adding: “A lot of people suffered”.

The review should look at the different ways society was affected including the economy as well as public health, he said.

An evaluation is needed so “we prepare better for the future — that’s always been the spirit”, he told reporters in Ethiopia during a visit to discuss aid and development between the two countries. 

UK inquiry

A report into how the pandemic was conducted in the UK was published on Thursday following an acrimonious inquiry finding failures in many areas of planning and execution.

It concluded, among other damning assessments, that "there was a failure to learn sufficiently from past civil emergency exercises and outbreaks of disease". 

Mr Martin insisted the Irish approach should be different. “That’s not shedding much light on the subject,” he argued, saying it more made for “moments of great drama”.

It remains unclear how the Irish inquiry will be set up, although he said work has started on this. “It could be a panel of people chaired by a person, but I would try and avoid the legal adversarial (approach),” he said.

“I’m not saying it shouldn’t be held in public, I’m not ruling that out at all but it would be public sessions, not in the classic sort of tribunal mode.” 

He added: “We do need to learn lessons, we didn’t get everything right.” 

The UK inquiry also heard dramatic and often angry examples of Whatsapp messaging.

One message, for example, saw Dominic Cummings urge then prime minister Boris Johnson to reshuffle his "brutal and useless" team, the inquiry heard. 

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However, Mr Martin does not expect this to be the case here and admitted: “I didn’t do a whole lot of text messaging. I pick up the phone, talk to people, meet people — I’m of a generation that believes in decision making through engaging with people.” 

An adversarial inquiry now, he said, could mean “you will get people being too cautious in a future crisis". 

He cautioned: “The worst thing you need in a crisis is people ticking boxes and protecting themselves. You’ve got to have decision makers, you have got to make decisions and go for it. There is no time for anything else.”