Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has warned that there is a “good chance” that Ireland will experience another “very serious pandemic” in our lifetime.
He made the comments as he indicated that an inquiry into Ireland’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic will be set up this year.
As of late December, 8,293 people had died from the virus since the first case was identified on our shores on February 29 2020.
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Mr Varadkar said that any inquiry cannot be about “finger pointing” or “ascribing blame”.
“It's going to be about getting to the truths, understanding what happened,” the Taoiseach explained.
“What we did well, what we did badly, what could have been done better.
“We can't assume that this is going to be the last major pandemic in our lifetime.
“There's a good chance that in our lifetime, you will experience another very serious pandemic and we need to be prepared for that
“That will be the purpose of the thinking behind the inquiry. I'd hoped to have that established sometime in 2023.”
Mr Varadkar said that the COVID-19 pandemic is not over as he acknowledged the surge in hospital numbers before Christmas.
On Sunday morning [sun], there were 678 people in hospital with the virus, of which 29 were in ICU.
He pointed out that many of the people who would be examined under an inquiry are still assisting in Ireland’s pandemic response.
He continued: “Certainly, the expectation is that we would have that inquiry up and running during the course of 2023. Some academic work by the expert group has been done already on that and it's with the Minister for Health [Stephen Donnelly].
“We’re examining what other countries are doing in terms of their public inquiries as well.”
An inquiry into the country’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic was first suggested by Tánaiste Micheál Martin in January 2022 when he was Taoiseach.
Last March, he indicated that key decision makers such as former Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan or former HSE CEO Paul Reid could be brought in front of any inquiry.
He warned that if there are any future crises, people cannot be “looking over their shoulders”, concerned that there could be an “inquiry behind their back”.
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