Covid-19: Little change in NI since pandemic, says barrister

Ms Campbell criticised the Department of Health’s previous closing statement in which she said they concluded that “the evidence was in part wrong or had been misunderstood or required to be refuted” leading to a familiar game of “Northern Ireland finger pointing between the Department and the Public Health Agency as to who knew what or should have known what”.

But she said it was “important to emphasise that this inquiry is not about proportioning blame”.

Covid-19 was an “entirely novel and unprecedented virus”, and she recognised people were “striving to do their best even if retrospectively it was apparent things could be done better”.

Ms Campbell said: “At this point, post pandemic, more than everything there must be evidence of reflection and work towards meaningful change and yet the absence of reflection, of lessons learned in the evidence from Northern Ireland is stark.”

She said she meant no discourtesy to the chair of the inquiry, Baroness Hallett, or her team when she concluded that there was “little to which this module can help us”.

“The issues in the NI healthcare system are too large, pervasive and systemic and the time available and the scope of this module was necessarily limited,” she said.