Professor Martin Cormican has said he believes the "vast majority" of public health members on the National Public Health Emergency Team believed school closure was not required for public health purposes during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Speaking on RTÉ's Brendan O'Connor programme, the former member of NPHET spoke about lessons that could be learned for any future emergencies.
It follows comments he had expressed recently that Ireland imposed measures during the Covid-19 pandemic that excessively limited basic freedoms.
"I didn't set out to open a can of worms," he said.
Prof Cormican, who is a Professor of Bacteriology, School of Medicine, University of Galway, reiterated NPHET's advisory role and that it was the Government who made the decisions.
He stated some of the worst effects of Covid restrictions were on children who he said were deprived of education for a "very long period of time".
"Effects of that were most dramatic."
He said it was particularly hard for children with special needs who "lost years of progress" and for those in disadvantaged circumstances.
He said in the future there should be a process that any restrictions are reviewed from a human rights perspective within three or four weeks by those who "are not intimidated by public health issues".
Prof Cormican said he was never restricted from expressing his views during the pandemic.
"I am not here to pretend everything was perfect," he said.
There was diversity of opinion on NPHET, Prof Cormican said.
"Of course there should be," he said.
"There is little point of having a committee that agree on everything."
He said it was always about reaching consensus but in the future he believes a process for recommendations should be reviewed by all members of the group before it goes to Government.
Having final draft recommendations being approved by everyone would be a "more robust process", he added, acknowledging that would not be easy to do.
He outlined the benefit of a review of public health emergencies saying it is a process about learning so "we do better in the future" and it is not about looking back and blaming.
He said Ireland was not the worst performer and did a lot of things well and he said it is important to recognise that, but added there are things that could have been done better.
With the pandemic response, he said, there was always going to be positive and negative aspects, stating this happens with every policy.
Meanwhile, Dr Gabriel Scally has said any review of how the Covid pandemic was handled should not include blame heaped on people and instead be "firmly oriented" on learning and making progress going forward.
Speaking on RTÉ's Saturday with Colm Ó Mongáin, Dr Scally said it should not be about looking for negligence despite admitting he had been vocal about some things being "done wrong" during the pandemic.
He said it should be focused on improving public health for the future.
"Blaming people is not going to help us in the long term," he added.
