Opinion

Brian Feeney: We need a Covid inquiry but Stormont will self-isolate from scrutiny

Brian Feeney

Brian Feeney

Historian and political commentator Brian Feeney has been a columnist with The Irish News for three decades. He is a former SDLP councillor in Belfast and co-author of the award-winning book Lost Lives

Stormont executive ministers, pictured last March, should have their handling of the coronavirus pandemic scrutinised by an inquiry. Picture by Mark Marlow
Stormont executive ministers, pictured last March, should have their handling of the coronavirus pandemic scrutinised by an inquiry. Picture by Mark Marlow Stormont executive ministers, pictured last March, should have their handling of the coronavirus pandemic scrutinised by an inquiry. Picture by Mark Marlow

As UK Covid deaths topped 100,000 last week there were renewed calls for an inquiry into the government's handling of the pandemic.

Naturally Johnson brushed aside such calls as being too early and "not the right time". That's a matter for England.

But what about here? There needs to be an inquiry, yet there are no demands for one, though the slavish following of the shambolic, chaotic English approach resulted in more deaths here than there ought to have been.

In England there's a group called Bereaved Families for Justice agitating for an inquiry. They are particularly outraged by the decision to clear hospital bedspace by decanting infected patients into care homes.

They have Johnson running scared. He has refused half a dozen times to meet them.

We have no similar organised pressure group yet the same happened here, because, guess what, they copied England.

The mistakes here are well known and were opposed and documented at the time. Late to close schools; late to lockdown, shadowing England and strongly opposed by Sinn Féin in March; testing abandoned following England on March 12; decanting into care homes; dithering on masks; the PPE ordering fiasco; Robin Swann sending 250,000 items to England as if there were a surplus here. Remember that?

Most of all, of course, no border policy, just like England, so even during lockdown people were coming here daily by plane and ferry. Instead, a crazy policy of 'travel corridors' in the early summer.

As the Republic has tightened its border policy over recent months the north refused to reciprocate.

By Christmas Sinn Féin MLAs were complaining that hundreds of people were flying in to Aldergrove, many being met by cars with southern registrations to be driven south; others came by ferry.

In vain did Dublin try to close the loophole. By that stage the Irish government had given up trying to reach an agreed approach with the north because, according to a senior official, there was "zero chance" of the DUP agreeing and an all-island approach was "not on the cards", no matter how many virology experts and epidemiologists insisting it was a no-brainer and the thousands of words Dr Gabriel Scally wrote advocating it.

The only time the north broke with following England was November when Foster's political weakness led her to succumb to the Covid-denying headbanger wing of her party and twice veto a lockdown guaranteeing a surge in infections in December

The DUP remain obdurate enemies of science and reason and purblind opponents of any cooperation with Dublin.

As one Dublin letter writer to the Irish Times put it: "If earth were invaded by aliens tomorrow and the only way to defeat them was every nation working together, the DUP would still refuse to work with Dublin.

"The single island strategy is rooted in the fantasy that across the border lies a functional political entity capable of bold, serious, cooperative action."

It's never going to happen. The so-called Memorandum of Understanding signed in April between the chief medical officers wasn't worth the paper it was written on because there was no buy-in by unionists.

Mind you, let's be clear, it was a two-way street: the Republic's governments in 2020 often didn't even pay lip service to the notion of a one island strategy.

Varadkar gave no notice of restrictions or relaxation of them. Dublin didn't provide incoming passenger information to the north - still haven't - though it might be retaliation for DUP refusal to block incoming British flights.

The only time the north broke with following England was November when Foster's political weakness led her to succumb to the Covid-denying headbanger wing of her party and twice veto a lockdown guaranteeing a surge in infections in December.

In other words, whether following England or not following England, the DUP was wrong.

You can see where this is going, can't you? Any inquiry into the north's response would have to conclude that ideological political calculations by the DUP overrode opponents' criticism, public health and expert advice.

No inquiry is going to reach such a conclusion, certainly not one appointed by Stormont. So, a few million pounds will be saved.