Ceisteanna ó na Comhaltaí Eile - Other Members’ Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-01-21
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

I am very committed to the evaluation model and have been consistently from the very beginning, even during Covid itself, for a number of reasons. Legal adversarial types of inquiry may not necessarily improve the situation subsequently or indeed for future pandemics as they may arise. We need to learn. We need to find out how to do things better into the future. We do not need people who are in the engine room or in the midst of a future crisis to be looking over their shoulder wondering how this will look in an inquiry, second-guessing their decisions and allowing paralysis to develop. I thought the British inquiry was terrible. I should not say it but that is my own personal, subjective view. Maybe I should not use that phrase.
It was adversarial and great theatre but I am not so sure that brings light. We have established a Covid-19 evaluation. It is a fact-finding and lessons-learned approach. It has a far greater chance of being completed with wide co-operation of all the relevant players in a non-adversarial atmosphere and is likely to be concluded more quickly. That is my view. We know how long statutory tribunals of inquiry can go on in this country and they do not necessarily get the outcomes.
A non-statutory expert-led after-action review offers speed and flexibility. It allows for public and private information giving. A lot of public consultations have been undertaken by this evaluation. There have been round-table events with stakeholder organisations. The proceedings of these round-table events are available to view on the evaluation's dedicated website, www.covid19evaluation.ie . In our view, compared to the statutory inquiry model, this is far more effective, efficient and timely. The chair and panel have a lot of flexibility. There is quite a range of members, including Professor David Heymann, a medical epidemiologist; Dr. Nat O'Connor, an assistant professor of social policy at the school of social policy, UCD; Dr. Nora Strecker, an assistant professor and Ad Astra fellow at University College Dublin's school of economics; Professor Bert Gordijn, professor of ethics and director of the institute for ethics at Dublin City University; and Professor Sara Burke, associate professor and director of the centre for health policy and management at Trinity school of medicine. That is the panel.
Since February of last year, the panel has been reviewing and analysing wide-ranging data and information gathered from public consultation, stakeholders, experts, officials and research reports. These are focused on societal and economic impacts; health and care; rights, including the rights of children; and wider issues such as communication, education and public policy.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-01-21/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-31T01:00:51+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-01-21