Lowry calls for review of Government actions during pandemic

In a Parliamentary Question to Minister for Public Expenditure, Michael McGrath in the Dail on Tuesday, Tipp TD Michael Lowry said the Covid pandemic blindsided the world. "Governments found themselves in alien territory. Now that we have reached this point in the Pandemic, the time has come for a full review of Ireland’s response to the Pandemic – to closely examine what we clearly got right and what we undoubtedly got wrong."

Speaking on the day that the winding down of NPHET was announced, Deputy Lowry recalled that the in the early stages of the pandemic Nursing Homes were largely overlooked and unsupported. ‘Statistics show that Nursing Homes recorded more than 2000 deaths. Families need to know if any of these deaths could have been prevented by earlier intervention’ he stated.

He added: "Throughout the pandemic, scientific proof of the effectiveness of Antigen Testing was dismissed by NPHET. I raised the merits of Antigen Testing many times on this floor. We now know that its use could have prevented costly decisions which impacted on industry, travel and education.

"Why did NPHET choose to ignore the expert advice of the Government’s Chief Scientific Advisor, Professor Mark Ferguson, in relation to Antigen Testing? Even when the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control stated that Antigen Testing could help reduce transmission, NPHET remained staunchly against its use.

"By analysing these mistakes we have an opportunity to prepare for future outbreaks of disease," said Deputy Lowry.

In reply, Minister McGrath said that there will undoubtedly be a look back of Ireland’s Covid experience over the past two years and how it was handled by Government, by State Bodies and by others as well.

"Minister Donnelly recently announced the establishment of a Public Health Reform Expert Advisory Group, which will initially focus on identifying the learnings from the Public Health components of the response to the Covid 19 Pandemic in Ireland, with a view towards strengthening health protection generally and our future Health Pandemic preparedness specifically.

"I think, when the full story is told and when the scorecard of how different countries fared in handling Covid 19 is published, Ireland will have fared well and the date in relation to the tragic mortalities we experienced does show that. This is not in any way to understate the loss and the grief or the trauma that all this has caused."