HEALTH MINISTER STEPHEN Donnelly said the terms of reference for the Covid-19 inquiry will be signed off by government “soon enough”.

Donnelly said the Department of the Taoiseach is currently working on the plans. 

The minister said he had seen the coverage of the UK inquiry, but said he didn’t expect the Irish inquiry to run into the same issues.

Former Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon has hit the headlines for reportedly refusing to say whether she deleted WhatsApp messages related to the pandemic, while former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other ministers have come under pressure over decisions made in the past. 

Donnelly said he expected the key players would be happy to be involved in it.

“I don’t think there’s going to be any issue with the Covid review here”, stating that the majority of people behind the scenes “worked well together”.

“It doesn’t mean we always agreed with each other. But we did work well together… I think everyone’s been very open to date as well,” he added. 

“People always look for the drama. And if we look at the coverage to date of Ireland’s response to Covidd, it focuses on personalities, it focuses on relationships, it focuses on colour, which is fine. We’re all interested in that. But when you take all of that out broadly I think what we will find is is as a nation, we responded well to Covid,” he said.  

“I believe there will obviously be a focus on colour and text messages or thumbs up emojis and whatever, whatever it might be, but in reality, I think as a nation, I think we’ve a lot to be proud of,” said Donnelly.

The Taoiseach has previously said that a “comprehensive evaluation” of how we dealt with Covid-19 in all aspects is needed and that it should cover government administration, public health and other areas.