COVID-19 Evaluation Update
Meetings with key decision makers and officials
In recent weeks, the independent COVID-19 Evaluation has held a series of bilateral meetings with key decision makers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The purpose of these meetings was to have an open discussion with those central to pandemic decision making at a national level. These meetings allowed the panel members to directly ask questions and gain a better understanding of the decision-making process, including the difficult considerations and factors which shaped core decisions and approaches, from the perspective of those leading the response.
As part of this engagement, the Evaluation Panel met with:
- Taoiseach Micheál Martin
- Tánaiste Simon Harris (in the context of his role as Minister for Health in the early days of the pandemic.)
- Former Taoiseach Leo Varadkar
- Former Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly
The Evaluation met with the former Chief Medical Officer (CMO) and former acting CMO within the Department of Health, given their central public health roles in the pandemic response. A meeting was also held with the former Secretary General to the Government and Department of the Taoiseach, given the Department’s central co-ordinating role in the whole-of-government response.
These meetings built upon an earlier roundtable consultation with senior officials from a number of Departments that played a significant role in the pandemic response.
Areas covered in these meetings included preparedness, governance and response structures; overarching decision-making, communication, information sharing and public health restrictions; health and social care; wider sectoral aspects such as education, welfare and inclusion; the economy and finances; and cross-sectional future preparedness.
Overall, meetings with decision makers and officials were very valuable to the Evaluation. They enabled gaining insights into, and better understanding of decision-making during the pandemic, including the complexities and trade-offs behind key decisions.
Furthermore, the Evaluation met with the former Chair of NPHET’s Irish Epidemiological Modelling Advisory Group and the former Chair of NPHET’s Coronavirus Expert Advisory Group.
The Evaluation also met with several key former and current figures across the HSE, including CEO’s, the Chief Clinical Officer, the Chief Technology and Transformation Officer, leads on Test and Trace, and national and/or assistant national directors across acute operations, community operations, and public health.
These meetings build upon earlier perspectives, gained by the Evaluation, through wider engagement with:
- Independent authorities across the state, such as the Ombudsman for Children, the Policing and Community Safety Authority, the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, the Health Information and Quality Authority, the Central Statistics Office, and the Higher Education Authority.
- Stakeholders covering areas such as death and bereavement, care and advocacy for those in hospitals and residential care, marginalised or vulnerable groups, trade unions, faith groups and funeral associations, and civil liberties.
- Independent experts, including across education, information and communication, health impacts, human rights and ethics, and law.
Overall, these meetings have been an important opportunity for the Evaluation Panel to reflect on inputs from expert leads across various areas of the health system, leading figures in public administration at the time of the pandemic, and a wide range of stakeholders and experts providing specific perspectives.
Ongoing work and final stages
Information gained from wide-ranging meetings, workshops, sectoral roundtable discussions and general and focused consultations run by the Evaluation provide important inputs into the Evaluation’s final report.
Following its previous sectoral roundtable events covering social, health and economic topics, the Evaluation plans to hold a final roundtable event that will focus on preparedness and optimal approaches for future emergency responses. This event will be live streamed and available for the public to watch online.
The next stage of the Evaluation’s work includes intense consideration and reflections on the wide range of inputs it has received throughout the engagement process. This will include the publication of two consultation pieces on long-term residential care, including the lived experiences shared by a number of bereaved families. These reports will build upon wider insights and reflections gained from the public consultation survey, and individual and stakeholder submissions.
The final stages of the Evaluation’s work include incorporating these reflections with the wide range of inputs the Evaluation has acquired throughout its work, including reports, research and formal submissions.
The Evaluation has now begun the intensive work of bringing together the voluminous, complex and diverse information and data gathered. The Evaluation is currently on track to deliver a final report at the end of the year. The report will assess planning for and management of the pandemic; including measures taken to mitigate it’s impacts and learnings to help support future decision-making in the context of rapidly moving threats of similar scale and duration.