Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said a non-statutory inquiry into Ireland’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic will not assign blame to any individual.
Mr Varadkar said the inquiry would be “comprehensive” and look at impacts on the economy, education and nursing homes.
He said the role of the Oireachtas as well as media and social media would also be examined.
Asked why the Government had chosen a non-statutory inquiry, Mr Vadarkar said he did not think it “would be in anyone’s interests” to have a six-to-seven-year-long inquiry which cost tens of millions of euro.
He said: “I’m sure that we could have done things differently, could have done things better and we need to learn for the next major public health emergency, so we want to get this done in a year or two, not in six or seven years.
“Also, the objective of it is not to ascribe blame to any individual. Anybody who made decisions or acted as they did during Covid – from front line, to doctors, to media, to Government Buildings – would’ve done so in good faith.
“But to say that there isn’t going to be any blame, that doesn’t mean we’re not going to admit any mistakes.
“Of course, mistakes were made, and it’s important that they’re faced up to and I would expect that to be part of the evaluation.”
Tánaiste Micheál Martin said following the UK’s approach of an “adversarial legal inquiry” would not be of benefit to Irish society.
Mr Martin said: “I’ve always made the point that if you go in with this sort of interrogatory approach, the next pandemic or the next major crisis you’ll have everybody looking over their shoulders in terms of ‘how would this look in the context of a future inquiry if I behave this way or that way’.
“Whereas what you want people to do in the midst of a crisis is make decisions based on the best information and evidence before them.”
