LOCKDOWN DID NOT SAVE LIVES, SAYS DÁIL WITNESS
THE chairman of the Dáil’s Covid-19 Committee has defended the attendance of an expert witness who admitted to breaching lockdown restrictions.
On Wednesday, retired UK Supreme Court judge Jonathan Sumption gave expert legal advice to the committee in relation to his country’s legislative response to Covid-19.
In an exchange with Labour Party TD Duncan Smith, Mr Sumption said he doubted whether lockdown actually saved a high number of lives.
‘I do not accept the Deputy’s starting premise that the lockdown saved a significant number of lives. Over the long-term, it will be found to have saved very few lives because unless the lockdown is maintained indefinitely, the infection rate simply rebounds afterwards,’ he said.
In July, Mr Sumption, a member of the British House of Lords, admitted breaching coronavirus regulations in the UK and eyebrows were raised among some committee members over Mr Sumption’s attendance, especially given the fallout from the Oireachtas Golf Society dinner in Clifden, Co. Galway, when public officials were found to have flouted Covid guidelines.
Deputy Smith raised Mr Sumption’s public admission that he had breached lockdown rules after he found restrictions were reaching ‘levels of absurdity’, and asked whether Mr Sumption was concerned his actions could fuel conspiracy theorists and far-right movements.
Mr Sumption replied that he shared these concerns, but said: ‘Sometimes one will make a decision for perfectly responsible and morally defensible grounds which other people, who are much less careful about what they are doing, will take advantage of.
‘I do not believe that is a sufficient reason for keeping silent about what I and many other people regard as a moral and constitutional outrage. Sometimes one must put up with the fact that many unpleasant people might agree with one in the interests of truth and honesty.’
Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, Independent TD for Clare, and chairman of the committee, Michael McNamara said witnesses were not quizzed about their views prior to attending the committee.
‘We don’t vet people to see whether we agree with their views in advance, we take in a variety of views… it’s up to the committee to make recommendations,’ he said.
Mr McNamara said that invitations to experts were sent out during the summer after suggestions were made by a working group of the committee.
A spokesman for the Oireachtas said: ‘Lord Sumption was deemed an appropriate witness in the context of the committee’s review of the legal framework regulating society at a time of Covid.’
‘We don’t vet people on views’