The independent review into how Ireland handled the Covid-19 pandemic has said it is on track to deliver its final report by the end of the year.
In recent months, the COVID-19 Evaluation has met with key people who were involved in dealing with the pandemic, including: Taoiseach Micheál Martin; former taoiseach Leo Varadkar; the former Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan; and key members of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET).
The independent Evaluation will hold a live-streamed debate this morning with experts to discuss how future national emergencies should be managed.
The proceedings will run from 10am to 12.45pm and can be viewed on the Evaluation’s website, covid19evaluation.ie, and on its YouTube channel.
The proceedings will include: Dr Caroline McMullan, Architect of the National Risk Assessment for Ireland; Lucy Easthope, Professor in Practice of Risk and Hazard, University of Durham; and Professor Pete Lunn, Head of the ESRI Behavioural Research Unit.
The evaluation was set up by the Government in late 2024, and is a non-statutory review, chaired by Professor Anne Scott, assisted by an evaluation team of experts.
It has held public consultations, received individual submissions and has held a number of roundtable discussions, including the first live-streamed debate in March.
Over 7,000 people responded to its public consultation.
It is now entering the final stages of work, to include consideration of all the information it has received during the engagement process.
In advance of today’s live roundtable debate, Prof Scott said that future preparedness needs to reflect on people’s experiences and behaviours, on how Ireland’s society and economy function, its collective resilience and human rights and democratic institutions.
Dr Tony Holohan was the face of NPHET during the pandemic
It will soon publish two consultation reports on long-term residential care, including the lived experiences shared by a number of bereaved families.
The review is tasked with learning lessons from the pandemic by examining Ireland’s response and the impacts across health, society and the economy.
In recent months, along with meeting the Taoiseach, the Evaluation Panel also met Tánaiste Simon Harris, in the context of his role as minister for health in the early days of the pandemic.
It also met former minister for health Stephen Donnelly, former and current figures across the HSE, and the former chairperson of NPHET’s Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group, Prof Philip Nolan.
The Evaluation Panel also met the former secretary general to the Government Martin Fraser.
The Evaluation Panel has said that overall, the meetings with decision makers and officials were very valuable to its work.
“They enabled gaining insights into, and better understanding of decision-making during the pandemic, including the complexities and trade-offs behind key decisions,” it added.
Covid-19 restrictions in Ireland lasted around two years, beginning in early March 2020 and ending at the end of February 2022.
Over 1.7 million confirmed cases were reported here during the official reporting period of the pandemic.
There were over 9,600 deaths reported here and an estimated over 7 million deaths worldwide, according to the most recent data.
Covid-19 remains in circulation in Ireland and vaccination against the latest strains are being provided in the current HSE winter vaccination programme, along with the flu vaccine.
Cases of Covid-19 are still detected in Ireland. Last week, 203 cases, 70 hospitalisations and one death were recorded.
Read more: What Ireland’s first public Covid-19 hearing revealed