OPPOSITION PARTIES HAVE further criticised the long-awaited Covid-19 inquiry, with Sinn Fein saying that powers to compel people to attend needed to be available to the chairperson “from the outset”.
The evaluation is expected to be up and running “in a matter of weeks” and will be chaired by retired University of Galway professor Anne Scott.
Those in government, including Tánaiste Micheál Martin, have insisted it is to be an “evaluation” rather than an “inquiry”.
The inquiry will look at how Ireland performed during the coronavirus pandemic, and evaluate how the country is prepared for potential future pandemics. It not intended to cover clinical questions or vaccine efficacy or outcomes.
Unlike a statutory inquiry, the evaluation’s chairperson and panel will not have the power to compel documents or witnesses, something opposition have been critical of.
However, Taoiseach Simon Harris has said that the Government will “keep an open mind” on any extra assistance, advice or power that the inquiry committee might need.
Speaking on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics this afternoon, Sinn Féin TD Darren O’Rourke said the inquiry is “designed to fail”.
O’Rourke said that he could imagine families who have been “stonewalled” criticising that there are no powers of compellability.
At the suggestion of extra powers being given to the inquiry if thought necessary, he said: “In my opinion, that’s an essential piece that needs to happen from the very outset, or it undermines the work that will go on.
“It is important, and it will be valuable work, but it will be limited if it’s constrained from the very outset, and it won’t have the confidence of those people who absolutely have to have confidence in it in my opinion,” he said.
Independent Ireland TD Michael Fitzmaurice said he does not believe the inquiry in its current format is good enough.
He said there were different parts of society “adversely affected” by the pandemic, and that Ireland “unfortunately lost a lot of elderly people”.
“I think when we’re looking at this, we need to do a root and branch, a full inquiry. I saw the wording, and this is basically ‘Sure come in if you can, or if you will, but there’s no compulsification in coming in’,” Fitzmaurice said.
“I don’t think it’s good enough to be quite frank about it, because I think there’s a lot of answers needed, especially the number of people that died in nursing homes. I think the adverse effect on mental health, especially in our young people.
“People that lost loved ones that could never say goodbye to them. Those type of things don’t leave you, and you need to really thoroughly go through all that.”
Independent TD Cathal Berry said the inquiry is “a start”, but that the focus “shouldn’t be a ‘got you’ moment”.
“It should be focusing on our next pandemic, which may arrive next year, five years time, 10 years time. We will have another pandemic, so we need to refine our response so we have it on the shelf when another pandemic shows up.”
Berry added that he believes Anna Scott will “run a very good show” and that it should be left to her judgement whether sessions should be public or private, depending on the testimony being provided.
Minister of State for European Affairs Jennifer Carroll MacNeill said the inquiry is about “getting the best information about how we handled the last pandemic”.
“This is a really important emotional process for everybody who was impacted by the pandemic, but it is also about learning the best that we can from making decisions with imperfect information, with terrible timing, so that we can learn for the next time.”
Carroll MacNeill said that if Scott wants powers of compellability, “we can do that”.
“But in the first instance, give people the chance to participate and cooperate. Nothing would stop me from cooperating if I was asked, and I imagine that that’s also the case for politicians, public servants and people who want to see a better outcome.”
She added that powers of compellability mean “lawyers, lawyers, lawyers and a really long process”.
“Can we try it in an evaluation way without lawyers first? Leave the lawyers out.”
The panel also discussed the Occupied Territories Bill.
With the Taoiseach expected to dissolve the Dáil on Thursday, the Opposition have called for the proposed legislation to be passed before this occurs, with parties offering their private members time in the Dáil next week to allow the Bill to progress.
This week, Tánaiste Micheál Martin has formally requested that a government-imposed block on the bill, known as the ‘money message’ be removed, allowing the legislation to pass to committee stage.
The Bill, tabled in 2018, has been frozen for years in the legislative process because of concerns that it would breach EU law.
In recent weeks, the Government has been seriously considering enacting the Bill in light of a recent International Court of Justice advisory opinion that stated the settlements in Palestine by Israel were illegal. However, coalition leaders have said the legislation could not be passed before an election is held.
Sinn Féin and the Social Democrats have put time aside in the Dáil in the earlier part of next week to enact the Bill.
Speaking on The Week in Politics, Darren O’Rourke said it was important to allow the Bill to be enacted before the Dáil is dissolved.
“The government have had five years to introduce this. They have literally brought excuse after excuse after excuse,” O’Rourke said.
“This is very serious and it’s a measure of what this government has done to support the Palestinian people and to bring sanctions against the Israeli government.”
He accused Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil of “blocking” the Bill from progressing, something Carroll MacNeill said was “disinformation”.
“We could not progress it because the international law did not allow us to,” she said.
“Since the ICJ opinion in July of this year, we have a different international law platform which now enables us to do that. That is so important.”
She said the Government has agreed a set of amendments which have to be drafted and developed with Senator Frances Black, who introduced the Bill.
“There’s about 12 areas in particular. It will move to committee stage, and it will get done by the next Government.”
She added that there is always the case that things have to move into the next government and that Fine Gael is committed to passing the Bill if they are re-elected into the next government.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say