Irish Examiner View: Where is our inquiry into Covid management?

It may be worth looking across to Britain to see how they are proceeding with a review of how they handled the pandemic

A closed playground in St Stephens Green due to Covid 19 restrictions in June 2020. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

In the third week of January, Taoiseach Micheál Martin confirmed that Ireland would establish a public inquiry into the Government’s handling of the pandemic.

In his level way, he said he would “prefer to call it an evaluation of how the country managed Covid-19”, adding that the Government had to learn lessons to better prepare for future pandemics.

Week three of this year is a different country to week eight, when Russia invaded Ukraine. It is understandable that there has been a high level of distraction since the tanks moved forward and the missiles started falling on February 24. Today is day 19 of the war, which is moving into its bloodiest and most horrific phase, and potentially its most dangerous if Moscow acts on implied threats to attack armament convoys for Ukraine moving across Nato territories and with rockets landing close to the Polish border.

This weekend also marked two years since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 to be a pandemic. Conservative estimates of the death toll from Covid across the globe stand at 6m, but research published in medical magazine The Lancet last week postulates the much higher figure of 18.2m excess mortality deaths between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2021. The excess mortality rate was highest in Russia and Mexico, while India is calculated to have experienced 4.07m cumulative excess deaths.

What these new figures — along with reports of the obstinate prevalence of Covid in many countries — underline is the absolute necessity of understanding what happened. We must reflect on what mistakes were made — not to apportion blame, but to understand what changes we need to make to protect public health in the future.

In Britain, the draft terms of reference for its Covid-19 inquiry have been published and the independent chair has been chosen. She is a 72-year-old retired judge, Heather Hallett, who is a crossbench life peer and led the independent inquest into the July 2005 bombings that claimed 52 lives and injured more than 700 on London’s transport system.

As we have been calling for our Government to announce criteria since last autumn, at first gently but with an increasing level of firmness in 2022, it is worth examining how the British are facing this issue. 

Their inquiries will cover nearly three dozen topics, including central, devolved, and local public health decision-making; preparedness and resilience; use of data and evidence; shielding and protection of the clinically vulnerable; lockdowns, social distancing and the use of face coverings; test and trace; educational restrictions; the justice system; care homes; restrictions on relatives visiting their loved ones; PPE provision; economic response; and a host of other subjects.

Crucially, the presiding judge will not resolve scope until there is public consultation, including with the bereaved and other affected groups. Submissions are open until April 7.

We deserve the same, at the very least. Our Government should not be putting this on the long finger but that is how it appears at the moment.