Hours of behind-closed-doors debate won’t allay fears virus probe is just talking shop
NINETEEN TDs spent the guts of five hours in socially distanced, behindclosed-doors sessions in the Dáil Chamber thrashing out how their probe into the State’s response to coronavirus will be carried out.
There was said to be ‘robust’ discussion on who the first witnesses before the Special Committee on Covid-19 Response should be and how often it would, and could, meet to comply with health and safety regulations.
An intention to hold some of this debate in public session never materialised.
And after hours of talk, an agreement was eventually reached that first up to face a grilling by TDs will be chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan, HSE boss Paul Reid and Department of Health chief Jim Breslin.
Fears the committee could turn into another talking shop – as the largely toothless Dáil questioning of the caretaker Taoiseach and ministers has been so far – will not be allayed by the time it took TDs to come to that decision.
But as the only committee that has been established so far, it will hog the limelight when TDs get to quiz officials at the front-line of the response to Covid-19 in public for the first time.
The dire situation that arose in nursing homes and concern over the testing and tracing regime will be top of the agenda if, as expected, the three senior officials attend next Tuesday.
The TDs also hope to be able to question the Construction Industry Federation (CIF), trade union Ictu, and the Health and Safety Authority (HSE) in the same week building sites are due to reopen.
Given the impact of the coronavirus emergency on every aspect of Irish life, the committee’s chairperson Michael McNamara will have his work cut out keeping members on topic and ensuring some focus to the committee’s work.
Social Democrats co-leader Róisín Shortall said the goal of the committee is to provide “oversight” of the “huge decisions” that have been taken by the Government and health officials.
“We need to question them and we need to ensure there is a level of accountability for the decisions that have been taken,” she said, adding she believes it can fulfil “a very important role in terms of getting to the bottom of a lot of the decisions being made”.
Ms Shortall said the committee will be able to make recommendations to the Government on the back of its work, which must be “very focussed and very targeted”.
“That means being very clear about the questions to be asked and not using opportunities at the committee for
any kind of grand-standing... And equally the responses we get from officials shouldn’t be in any way evasive,” she said.
Fianna Fáil health spokesperson Stephen Donnelly insisted that yesterday’s lengthy deliberations were “productive”.
He cautioned that the “biggest issue” with the committee is that its scope is so broad.
“Every facet of our lives, our economy, our society is affected by Covid-19 and this is the only committee.
“I think for us to succeed we will need to focus in and make sure we’re asking questions in the areas that really matter to people,” he said.
Mr Donnelly added he would expect the committee to come to findings at the end of its work and make recommendations to the Government.
The committee has no deadline to finish that work as yet, which is not normally conducive to focussing minds.
There are signs that members of the Upper House are peeved that they’ve been left out of the process, with Senator Gerard Craughwell saying their omission will lessen its potential for effective scrutiny.
There’s also the possibility that a government will be formed allowing for the re-establishment of all the usual Oireachtas committees.
Turf wars may well break out as has been seen in the past with various committees seeking to conduct their own overlapping probes on issues like the cervical screening scandal and National Children’s Hospital cost overrun.
For the time being, it is the only show in town.