Covid-19: Government and Nphet made mistakes during pandemic, Taoiseach says

Both the Government and the National Public Health Emergency Team (Nphet) made mistakes during the Covid-19 pandemic, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

Speaking in New York, where he attended the United Nations Sustainable Development Conference, he said that on reflection there should have been no easing of restrictions ahead of Christmas 2020 in light of the emergence of the Alpha variant of the virus.

He also suggested that Ireland was slow to introduce mask-wearing as well as antigen tests. He also said the final Omicron lockdown was probably not necessary.

The Taoiseach said that, in relation to Christmas 2020, both the Government and Nphet had made “the wrong call”.

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“Nphet proposed one form of reopening which would have meant a lot of social interactions in private houses while the Government proposed a different reopening plan which involved some hospitality and some private houses.”

In January 2021, after the Christmas season, more than 1,500 deaths were recorded due to Covid – the single worst month during the pandemic.

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In a new autobiography, former chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan said he still cannot understand why pubs and restaurants were allowed to remain open over that Christmas despite the clear Nphet advice.

“I cannot say that all of the deaths in January 2021 could have been prevented. But I think we should have prevented a lot more of them.”

Mr Varadkar also said he “went too far” in an interview three years ago when he criticised Dr Holohan and other members of Nphet for having “landed” fresh lockdown advice in October 2020 without consultation. At the time, Mr Varadkar said no member of Nphet “would have faced being on the pandemic unemployment payment benefit… and none of them would have to shutter a business for the last time” in comments that were seen by some as personalised against Dr Holohan.

Speaking on Monday, the Taoiseach said he had made the comments in circumstances where the Nphet advise had “changed very dramatically overnight” and without consulting the Government. “But it was not right for me to make personalised criticisms of members of Nphet and questioning their motivations and their understanding about how their decisions impacted on people. That was not fair.”

The Taoiseach said there would be an inquiry into the Covid pandemic in Ireland and that the terms of reference would be brought to Government in the next few weeks. He suggested the review would be carried out by a panel.

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“It is not going to be about putting anyone on the dock. [It] won’t be a witch hunt but will be about finding out what we did right and what we did wrong.”

“And it’s something that always struck me at the start of the pandemic, Paul Reid of the HSE [Health Service Executive], saying that we’d probably get about 70 per cent of things right, and maybe 30 per cent of things wrong. And that was inevitable given that nobody, nobody dealt with a pandemic before of this nature. And I think we did.

“Bear in mind in Ireland we had one of the lowest excess mortality rates in the world, much lower than many of our neighbours. And also our economy recovered to bounce back much more quickly. So I think in the round all over the world and making those decisions, whether it was HSE, or Department of Health or Government, [we] made the right ones most of the time.”