Irish Examiner view: Detailed probe of our response to Covid is long overdue

We need to learn lessons from how we dealt with pandemic in order to plan ahead

Philip Nolan: Spoke about the benefit of hindsight. Picture: Stephen Collins/Collins Photos

The pandemic continues to cast a shadow in Irish life. Only this week Philip Nolan, former chair of the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet), defended the response to Covid-19, pointing out that it was easy to look back in hindsight to say different actions should have been taken.

Nolan pointed out that the health services were dealing with a novel virus in real time — a valid point, but one which doesn’t preclude a detailed investigation of the national response, which we are long overdue.