Sharon Keogan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I was elected as a Senator, but as the Leas-Chathaoirleach addressed me as "Councillor", that is fine. I echo the welcome to the Maltese delegation. I visited Malta this summer. It is the most beautiful country. If Senators have not been there, please go.

I raise an issue regarding the Covid-19 inquiry. At the end of August, both the UK and Northern Ireland established independent Covid-19 inquiries examining the response to the pandemic by Boris Johnson's Cabinet and the Northern Ireland Executive, respectively. Ireland is nowhere to be seen. Why is this country's leadership so afraid of accountability? I first raised this issue in the House as far back as July of last year. I knew then that the far-reaching and sweeping measures being adopted by the Government at the National Public Health Emergency Team's suggestion-order would demand retrospective appraisal and critical analysis.

I reiterated the call for an inquiry in January of this year and we finally got the Taoiseach and Tánaiste to spill the coffee and address the matter, with the former, amid much humming and hawing, making a promise to carry out an evaluation of how the country managed Covid-19. Eight months on, that pledge seems to been given the old Irish political treatment of do not mention the war, hope that people will forget and sweep the matter under the carpet. After all, we are in a cost-of-living crisis now. Why learn from one crisis when we can jump straight into another? The Taoiseach said he would prefer if we use the term "evaluation" as opposed to "inquiry", as the latter implies there are people to blame.

The former minister for health in France was under investigation over her handling of Covid-19. Investigators have concluded that there are grounds for prosecution. Only in Ireland could the Government implement two years of rolling lockdowns, restrictions and various other direct interventions in the lives of members of the public and then turn around and say no one is responsible for that. It is the insulating effect of a whole-of-government approach, perhaps. The UK inquiry is set to become the largest statutory enquiry in British legal history, with 20,000 submissions passed last month. The chair has told Departments there to protect evidence, including WhatsApp messages, from destruction. It is probably too late for that here.

Postponing the establishment of our Covid-19 tribunal serves no one but those who fear it and what it will find. Ignoring the need for it completely would be an abject failure on the part of the Government and an insult to the Irish people, who deserve answers based on hard, cold facts now that the cobwebs of Covid spin and narrative-building have fallen away. There are questions that need to be answered. I am not sure if even Ireland's carpet is big enough to conceal what happened in the past two years. Our Covid inquiry needs to be established. I do not know who the Deputy Leader wants to bring in here to tell us what is being done, just as long as there is someone who can say that we will start the process and mean it. Government needs to stop hiding in the dark because this will not go away.