Opinion: It will need to be transparent, independent and ask the right questions about what we've experienced since March 13th 2020
Over the last weeks, perhaps because of the ongoing inquiry in the UK, talk of a Covid inquiry have intensified in Ireland. Some see an inquiry as essential, key to improving future pandemic responses if history were to repeat itself. Others will see an inquiry as a pointless and costly exercise that rakes over the old coals. Given that the Minister for Health has confirmed that he and the Taoiseach are committed to an inquiry, it remains to be seen which of these two outcomes will ensue, as both are still very much in play.
There are a couple of very basic principles that will support a high quality inquiry. Some of them are so blindingly obvious that they shouldn't really need to be mentioned. But stating the blindingly obvious was something that I made a habit of during the Covid years, and I was always surprised at how much these things needed to be said.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Saturday with Colm Ó Mongáin, when will we have our own Covid-19 inquiry in Ireland?
First up, the inquiry needs to be independent. Over the last year or more, there has been a tendency in conversations about Ireland's Covid response to emphasise the successes the things we got right. But this inequiry should not and can not be an 'appreciative inquiry’ with slaps on the back. We need to review things that went wrong or that were particularly challenging.
Secondly, the inquiry needs to open up conversations. The inquiry cannot just be about how things went from the perspective of those charged with the response. It also has to accommodate the views of those affected by these response, such as frontline workers, patients and families. The voices and views of all sections of society needs to come through.
Thirdly, the inquiry needs to be transparent. In reality, this means that the work of the inquiry will most likely need to be public. One of the key issues during the pandemic was the lack of transparency in decision making processes. In all likelihood, many of the decisions that people struggled with are likely to be more positively assessed if there is full understanding of what brought us to that place.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Today With Claire Byrne in Sep 2023, an inquiry into the State's response to the Covid-19 pandemic could be announced by the Government shortly
In reality, many of the most controversial decisions were political rather than public health decisions. There was a mantra that people were to follow the science. We will need to accept that how we followed the science was a choice and that many of the choices we made were political. That is not to say they were party political or explicit attempts to appeal to voters, but policy decisions were being made where concerns were as much about their acceptability and economic impact as public health.
Too often, decisions advantaged the mainstream and the inquiry therefore needs to be representative. Ireland's response to Covid and the thinking about how best to deal with it was dominated by medicine and hard science. How did we incorporate knowledge from economics, architecture and behavioural science in our responses? How might we do this in the future?
There is a need for the inquiry to ask the right questions so it may be a good idea to have a panel of people across several sectors. My hope is that we don’t leave this inquiry to one person or indeed one domain. The response you get to any question is always down to the question you ask. An inquiry with a myriad of investigators will offer a muraid of answers and the multiplicity of voices needs to come through.
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From RTÉ Radio 1's Drivetime, Chief Political Correspondent at Talk TV Peter Cardwell on the UK's Covid-19 inquiry
We have a key opportunity to learn here. To do this, we need to make sure that we set up any inquiry with an intention to learning goals. We need to avoid any opportunity for performance and point scoring. Our response to Covid was informed by politics and there were, of course, personal factors in play. In a small country such as ours, where decision making is in the hands of a small group, this is almost unavoidable.
That said, we can have an inquiry that doesn’t become political, one where people don’t take things personally or for political purpose, one where personal comments are verboten. It will take strong hands, a transparent and open approach and an orientation that delivers learning for future actions. There may well be some hard truths and tough lessons to come out of it, but we should be brave enough to take it on the chin after all we have been through since March 13th 2020.
The views expressed here are those of the author and do not represent or reflect the views of RTÉ
