Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Last week the European Parliament established a special committee on the Covid-19 pandemic. The committee includes in its title, "lessons learned and recommendations for the future". While many times we might be well served by keeping an eye on the EU, in this case, we best take a leaf from its book. The Covid pandemic was the most impactful global health crisis of our time. Are we just going to move on as if nothing happened? Are we not going to seize this opportunity to look back, assess and critically examine our national response to Covid? Are we not going to examine our own lessons learned and establish research and data-led recommendations for the future? It is unthinkable that we now do anything less than go through every aspect of our Covid response with a fine-tooth comb and investigate whether every facet of it was up to scratch. How responsive were we to changing circumstances and new data? How accurate were our predictions? Which systems and responses worked out and which ones did not?

Last September, An Taoiseach said that he was wary of an official inquiry hamstringing responses to future emergencies, but is it not the opposite? Would a robust, transparent inquiry not show up any failures or mistakes in our pandemic response and allow us to build on our experience and do better in the future? It was stated in January there would be an evaluation of the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.Can we get an update on it? Who is to carry out the evaluation? What powers will they have to carry out their functions? Will it be a rehash of the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response? Key figures in the pandemic response refused flat out to appear before it and be accountable, and it was wound up mid-pandemic once the Government figured out that accountability was inconvenient. Alternatively, will the Covid inquiry be a real one that will drill down into and uncover the inconvenient truths, face up to the hard data and equip future generations with dearly paid-for information on how to handle an international pandemic? Anything short of that is an insult to those who lost their lives to Covid.