Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said it is easy for people who were involved in the Covid-19 pandemic to come out now and say Ireland should have done things differently.
He was responding to questions about the recent remarks by Professor Martin Cormican, who had been a member of NPHET and his criticism about some of the restrictions and measures introduced.
The minister said that Prof Cormican was entitled to his view but that the appropriate place for that was in a structured lookback on Ireland's handling of the pandemic, which the Government is planning.
Mr Donnelly said that NPHET had a job to do, Prof Cormican was a member and was fully empowered to make any points he wanted in NPHET.
He also said that Prof Cormican could have contacted him at any time if he had wished to.
He said that a lookback would be important and there were things which would need to be learned.
Mr Donnelly said that by most measures people look at, Ireland did very well, relative to other countries, in terms of vaccine roll-out and excess mortality.
