The inquiry into the handling of Ireland’s Covid-19 pandemic will reportedly take a “no blame” approach, a government draft plan reportedly suggests.
The draft, which was seen by RTÉ News, reportedly aims to be “independent, multi-disciplinary, objective and fair and should involve a no blame approach.”
The review is being dubbed an “Independent Pandemic Evaluation,” and will reportedly not be a statutory inquiry. This means it will not have the powers to compel witnesses to give evidence, nor will it be able to set limits on the government’s discretionary control of the inquiry. It will reportedly focus on “lessons” that can be learned from the pandemic and lockdown period.
The panel, which will be led by experts, will reportedly seek to gather evidence in a “non-adversarial” way according to the State broadcaster, and will compare the Irish government’s overall Covid response to that of other countries and governments. It’s understood that some of the evidence will be done in public, and some in private.
The inquiry will report to the Taoiseach, though a date for this has not yet been decided.
In October of last year, Gript asked Tánaiste Micheál Martin when the public could expect to see a Covid inquiry, given that other countries like the UK already had theirs well underway.
The Tánaiste replied that he’d prefer an “evaluation” of the State’s handling of Covid, rather than using the term “inquiry.”
Asked by if this evaluation could be expected by the end of 2023, he replied at the time: “I would hope so.”
“I prefer to use the term evaluation”: Tánaiste Micheál Martin says he’d prefer an “evaluation” of the State’s handling of Covid, rather than the term “inquiry.” Asked by @Ben_Scallan if this could be expected by the end of 2023, he replied: “I would hope so.” #gript pic.twitter.com/s3gnvdUVnI
— gript (@griptmedia) October 12, 2023
In January of 2022, Martin previously said that he didn’t want any potential inquiry to be overly punitive, because it might hinder efforts to combat future pandemics. He previously said he didn’t want the main ringleaders behind the lockdown and similar measures being pulled “out of the frontline to be inside in some room going through presentations.”
“I don’t want people during the next pandemic saying ‘there’s an inquiry coming’ and take a conservative approach,” he said. He added that while it was expected that mistakes would be made during a situation like a pandemic, he was “satisfied” that those making the decisions had always acted in the public interest.”