Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú) | Oireachtas source

A recent headline in the Irish Independentquotes the Taoiseach as saying that the "Final lockdown ... may not have been needed". It states that the Taoiseach doubts that the December 2021 restrictions had any real benefit. Indeed, there are massive questions in relation to the Government's handling of Covid from the thousands of older people who were moved from the hospitals into nursing home, many not being tested, seeding Covid in the place where people were most exposed, to the closure of cancer care, mental health care and care for stroke and heart disease which may be leading to the increasing excess deaths now within society, to the longest closure of primary schools in the European Union which may be leading to the massive increase in the number of children bring referred to Tusla currently. The British Government, for all its faults and chaos, is at least holding an investigation into the actions and pulling back the veil on its decisions. Is it the case that there is a strategic reluctance for the Government to do exactly the same thing, and that the Government does not want to hold an investigation into its decisions? This will have a serious cost because if we do not learn from the mistakes that were made during Covid, we will not be properly prepared for the next time.

See this speech in context