Covid inquiry terms of reference to be brought to Cabinet ‘shortly’, says Harris

The terms of reference for Ireland’s Covid inquiry are to be brought to Cabinet “shortly”, according to Simon Harris, who said the format should encourage transparency.

A review of how Ireland handled the Covid-19 pandemic is expected to analyse the Government’s response, how hospitals and nursing homes coped and the effect it had on society and the economy.

The Government had planned to establish the inquiry in 2023, but Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said it was delayed due to a series of “unpredictable events”.

He also said that time was needed to get the terms of reference right so it did not stray into “all sorts of things”, as had happened in the UK.

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry has publicly questioned Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, former prime minister Boris Johnson, former health secretary Matt Hancock and former adviser to Mr Johnson, Dominic Cummings.

Asked about the inquiry, Mr Harris said he expected the terms of reference to come to Cabinet “shortly”, and said that the format should be one that “enables people to be transparent, to be forthcoming”.

He was responding to questions about whether the inquiry should be protected by legal privilege.

While acknowledging that a review of the Covid-19 pandemic was “really important”, he said that Ireland “did a good job” overall during the health crisis.

“I do feel in this country, in a way that didn’t happen in other countries, people came together, people pulled together. But I also know that it was a time of great pain for many people,” he said at Government Buildings on Thursday.

Mr Harris, who was a health minister at the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, said it was for independent experts and not for him to determine what could have been done better.

“But certainly there will be, absolutely, lessons to be learned, things that need to be done better. And also, you’ve got to recognise in a pandemic, that I certainly recognise this, that I believe everybody was doing everything they possibly could to the best of your ability with the information that was available,” he said.

“But of course, as you look back, it’s right and proper to say, actually with the benefit of hindsight, could something have been done differently.”