The Government will “keep an open mind” about any extra assistance, advice or power the chair of the Covid-19 pandemic evaluation committee might need, Taoiseach Simon Harris has said.
Mr Harris also said while Ireland got “lots of things right” during the pandemic, there was a lot of pain and loss during the period.
The Government confirmed on Wednesday that an evaluation of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic is to be entirely voluntary, will have no powers of compellability and its secretariat will be drawn from the Civil Service.
The Cabinet approved terms of reference for the evaluation exercise and also the nomination of Prof Anne Scott as chairwoman.
A Government spokesman said it would be up to Prof Scott and the other members of the “evaluation panel” how its processes were run, but repeatedly confirmed that it was “not a statutory inquiry”, had no legal powers and would depend on people agreeing voluntarily to take part.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the Taoiseach said there had been structures in the past that hadn’t been statutory, such as Dr Gabriel Scally’s report on CervicalCheck, which had yielded “good progress”.
“That [Dr Scally’s report] did provide answers, that did provide a roadmap, and did it in a very time efficient way,” said Mr Harris.
He said it was important to look back at what had gone well and what didn’t and also looking for lessons that could be applied to “future pandemic preparedness”.
Mr Harris said Prof Scott and her panel would be independent in their work and the first thing they would do is have a consultation and “hear from the voices of those who wish to be heard from in terms of what they want and expect from a Covid evaluation”.
Separately, the Fine Gael leader said that once the Finance Bill is passed he will “move swiftly” to provide clarity to the public as to when the general election will be.
Mr Harris said it looked like the bill, which brings in tax cuts announced in the Budget, would be passed by the Oireachtas next week.
“I don’t want to take the work of the Oireachtas for granted,” he said. “The Oireachtas does have to debate and consider the Finance Bill. When that is concluded, I won’t be dilly dallying around in terms of providing people clarity on when the general election will be.”
Mr Harris also said that a Fine Gael proposal to establish a separate Department of Infrastructure would be part of a reconfiguration of Government departments and that further detail would be in his party’s election manifesto.
He said he was “restless” to come up with a better way of delivering major infrastructure projects and that “a lot of mega projects” needed to be delivered in the years ahead such as the Metro and offshore energy.
“I do think when you establish a department, it can provide a real, dedicated focus and drive,” he said.
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