The legacy of Northern Ireland’s powersharing vacuum prior to the Covid-19 emergency will inevitably by examined by the UK inquiry into the pandemic, a preliminary hearing has been told.
Lead counsel to the Northern Ireland module of the inquiry, Clair Dobbin KC, told chairwoman Baroness Hallett a ministerial executive in Belfast was re-established after a three-year impasse in January 2020 – just a month before the first case of coronavirus was confirmed in the region.
