Leading figures involved in managing the Republic’s response to the pandemic are unlikely to face a public grilling as part of the State’s evaluation of the crisis.
The Covid-19 independent evaluation, an expert panel established by the last government, today launched a public consultation inviting submissions on people’s experiences of the period.
However, its chair, Prof Anne Scott, said it was unlikely that figures such as former chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan or the taoisigh in power at the height of the crisis – Leo Varadkar and Micheál Martin – would give evidence in public.
She said senior figures such as the chief medical officer and the minister for health had been on TV screens every night during the pandemic. She said she did not think the review “requires us to actually rerun that”.
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“This isn’t about really living in the past. It is about learning lessons,” she said.
The public had a “benign perspective” on decision makers who had to balance different factors when managing the response, Prof Scott said. The evaluation is “not focused on individual accountability” but instead will consider “the structures, processes, frameworks that are in place”.
It is understood that while interviews with key decision makers will be recorded, a transcript is not expected to be made public after the group’s work is finished.
Asked if people would be named in the report, she said this was not the intention. “We are not here to point fingers or to apportion individually blame. What we are here to do is assess the effectiveness and impact of the kind of decisions that were made.”
Prof Scott said there would be public-facing events, including “round table live stream” events hosted on the evaluation panel’s website, which the review team expects to be held with groups representing different stakeholders affected by the pandemic, as well as debates.
An initial “voluminous” tranche of documents about the management of the pandemic has been handed over by Government departments and key agencies involved in managing the pandemic.
[ The Irish Times view on the Government’s Covid evaluation: a minimalist responseOpens in new window ]
Prof Scott said this approach would allow a “more open, more flexible dynamic”. She said she hoped there would not be a need for legal representation and that she hoped to produce a report with “clear, practical, implementable recommendations”.
She expects “significant co-operation” when seeking further information from departments and Cabinet, noting that the review team does not have statutory powers to compel the production of records. Safeguards around Cabinet confidentiality are also a consideration.
The evaluation team today announced the start of a public consultation, which is open to all adults and is available online. Three additional panel members were also confirmed on Thursday, alongside Prof Scott and Dr David Heymann.
Prof Bert Gordijn, Dr Nat O’Connor and Dr Nora Strecker have joined.
