Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge and recognise how difficult is has been for families generally who lost loved ones during Covid, but particularly for families of nursing home residents who died during the pandemic, which, let us not forget, presented the country and the world with one of the greatest and most wide-ranging public health challenges internationally. This was a global pandemic, the likes of which we had not witnessed since 1918 with the Spanish flu. There is a need for a comprehensive evaluation of how the country managed Covid-19. We are very close to that. There were issues, as I said before, in identifying a chair for the inquiry. I hope we will be able to publish the terms of reference before any event may happen in the time ahead.

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