Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last September, the Taoiseach said that an evaluation of the State's Covid's response would begin early this year to consider how the country performed for the purposes of learning lessons to be applied in the future. Instead, what has transpired is the establishment of an expert advisory group whose scope is limited to the public health service. It is my strong view that there is a need for a public inquiry that is time-bound to consider all aspects of Government decision-making because there was no element of public service provision that did not face decisions it would not ordinarily have to make, while having to adapt services to an unprecedented changing environment.

A public inquiry is, in my view, the only mechanism by which the experiences of civic society and the outcomes of political and public policy decisions can be thoroughly explored and evaluated. This process does not have to be drawn out or adversarial but it must be independent, fit for purpose and human rights compliant. There will be hard questions for Government. The Taoiseach was a member of multiple Cabinets that presided over a deeply fragmented public health service. Nursing homes, critical care, domestic violence services, disability and dementia services, mental health and addiction care were all casualties of an historically under-resourced public system. In the absence of a public inquiry, how can the Taoiseach's commitment to a full evaluation of the State's response to Covid be delivered on?

We have to also acknowledge that Covid-19 remains with us and the need for robust and resourced testing, tracing and vaccination programmes remain. We need clarity from the Taoiseach on what that will look like into the future.

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