As it happened: Covid-19 inquiry in Belfast

It looks like the inquiry has finished for the day...

Earlier, counsel to the inquiry Clair Dobbin KC asked if Northern Ireland could have introduced tougher restrictions at an earlier point.

She pointed out that schools in the Republic of Ireland had closed 10 days before Northern Ireland.

Watch her statement below:

We'll bring you more updates as soon as we get them.

Ms Toman is asked about disabled children and families during the Covid pandemic.

She says during the first wave when Special Educational Needs (SEN) schools closed, there were reports of "significant challenges" in getting access to equipment for home schooling.

Parents felt "emotional and mental distress" due to an absence of a wider support network.

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Nuala Toman from Disability Action Northern Ireland - a service which delivers for about 100,000 annually - is the next person to give evidence at the inquiry.

She says during the Covid-19 pandemic, disabled people were "isolated, lonely" and social care had collapsed.

She added people who were disabled faced challenges when accessing food and medicine - meaning many went hungry.

In terms of decision-making during the pandemic, Ms Toman says disabled people were "invisible" and there was a lack of cross-departmental cooperation.

Ms Toman also points out that data was not available on the number of disabled people who died with Covid until late 2021.

This showed the number of disabled people accounted for a "disproportionate" number of deaths.

She adds there is "no available evidence" mitigations were put in place for disabled people.

Speaking about the Bereaved Families group, Ms Reynolds says members were concerned about the three-year collapse of the executive which predated the pandemic.

She also says some were concerned about the appointment of a new health minister, Robin Swann, who was entering his role as the pandemic began.

"At the very beginning, one could see the need for what we would now say are quite draconian measures," she adds.

"But as time went on, we learned more about the pandemic, we learned who were vulnerable, we learned more about how it was spread.

"There wasn't really the approach to moving forward based on the acquired knowledge, it seemed especially for people in care homes... care homes still weren't opening up, people were still being deprived of their family, their friends, their clergy."

More from Marion Reynolds...

When she was allowed to visit her aunt indoors, she says she was lying in the bed in clothes that weren't hers and she was dehydrated.

She then says she told a staff member that her aunt was "dying before my eyes", but both the worker and the doctor disagreed.

However three days later, Marie passed away.

Ms Reynolds says she had not witnessed many people dying.

"However people who work in care homes would have," she says.

"They would have been in a better position than I would to know she was nearing the end of her life."

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Marion Reynolds, from the Northern Ireland Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, is called forward to give evidence about her Aunt Marie.

Ms Reynolds says her aunt, who was profoundly deaf but could lip read, was living independently before she broke her hip.

When carers would come to help and would wear masks, she couldn't understand what they were saying.

Ms Reynolds also said her aunt had a longstanding eating problem and needed to know who made and handled her food, but as the pandemic continued, family members were not able to come help with this issue.

In September 2020, Ms Reynolds says her aunt was admitted to hospital with pneumonia and tested positive for Covid-19 five days later.

After recovering, she was discharged to a care home and Ms Reynolds could only speak to her aunt from outside her window.

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Peter Coll KC delivered the opening statement on behalf of the Executive Office (TEO).

He says the TEO again acknowledges the impact the pandemic and the management of it had and continues to have on the people of Northern Ireland.

He gives a summary of how governance works in Northern Ireland, and reminds the inquiry chair that Northern Ireland is a relatively small jurisdiction in a "complex political environment" and "ongoing financial pressures".

Mr Coll says it must be recognised that front-line staff providing essential services were "dealing with the most difficult and unprecedented circumstances".

He says the Executive Office was also dealing with other issues such as the fall out of Brexit.

Concluding, he says that matters could have been "done differently and could have been done better".

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Neasa Murnaghan KC is representing the Department of Health in Northern Ireland.

She began by expressing profound condolences to the families and friends of everyone who died due to Covid-19, and praised health and social care workers across NI.

Ms Murnaghan says the "pandemic represented a baptism of fire for our fledgling five-party coalition, which was heading a devolved administration in a relatively small part of the UK".

She says the department would emphasise that all too often the task was not to make the right decision, but to make the "least wrong one".

Near impossible choices were required, she adds.

Speaking next is Rory Phillips KC who's representing the National Police Chiefs' Council, which includes the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

He starts by saying the PSNI were one of the front-line services dealing with the "day-to-day impacts of the pandemic", while balancing the pandemic's repercussions on their workplace and their own families and households.

However, he says policing in Northern Ireland is different to the rest of the UK - the context, the historical background - which added another layer of complexity to police work during the pandemic.

On the subject of Fixed Penalty Notices (FPNs), Mr Phillips says the PSNI was the enforcing authority in Northern Ireland by issuing directly to the public, unlike in England and Wales.

However, he reminds the inquiry that the police response cannot be solely assessed on the number of FPNs issued.

Concluding, he says the PSNI worked closely with the Northern Ireland Executive through the pandemic in a "collaborative and constructive" way.

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Next up is Monye Anyadike-Danes KC and she's representing the Commissioner for Older People for Northern Ireland.

Ms Anyadike-Danes says it is generally accepted the pandemic was "devastating for older people".

"The Covid-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on older people - 90% of the deaths in the first wave were people over 65," she says.

"Around half of Covid-19 deaths in Northern Ireland occurred in a care home."

While this is often recited, she says, "it doesn't stop it being a shocking statistic."

Speaking about statistics and the way they were collected and recorded, she says they may not portray the full extent of the pandemic's impact.

"It remains unclear how many older people died of Covid-19 during the pandemic and how many older people died of conditions for which they were unable to obtain treatment."

Mr Jacobs goes on to say the Irish Congress of Trade Unions attempted to meet the first minister and deputy first minister at the start of the pandemic.

He says these attempts "fell on deaf ears", but the Department of Health was more open to engagement.

"However piecemeal social partnership was not sufficient to address the all encompassing nature of the pandemic."

He added the executive did initially engage in what was called the Strategic Engage Forum - which brought together employers, trade unions, Public Health Agency and Health and Safety Executive - but it was "largely ignored" as the pandemic continued.

Mr Jacobs also raised the issues of mass outbreaks within workplaces and "adequate financial support" for workers who needed to self-isolate.

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Barrister Sam Jacobs is next up for the TUC and the NI Committee of the Irish Congress of Trades Unions.

He said the pandemic had an "unequal impact" in workplaces.

Many of those who were on the front line during Covid-19 were in lower-paid jobs and were more susceptible to health issues.

He said the highest proportion of deaths were among workers from processing plants and machine operatives.

Mr Jacobs also says the pandemic made a "real world impact" on public services, but it was "impossible to divorce [this] from their state going into the pandemic".

The need to reform the health and social care system in Northern Ireland was widely recognised but the collapse of power-sharing had prevented this, he adds.

Mr Friedman KC says the protection of disabled people during the Covid-19 pandemic was "flawed".

This includes the issuing of shielding letters, access to food and inclusive communication.

He says disabled people in Northern Ireland are the "most marginalised" in the UK and there is no "effective social partnerships between the state and people".

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The inquiry has resumed.

Danny Friedman KC is on his feet and represents Disability Action Northern Ireland.

He says "Northern Ireland does not enjoy a progressive human rights culture" and the social model for disability "forms no part of policy".

He adds that planning for disabled people during the pandemic and in general is "minimal".

Speaking about the executive during the Covid-19 pandemic, he says the "novice ministers" were not "robust enough" to deal with the pandemic.

The inquiry has stopped for lunch.

We'll be back with more updates soon. Stay with us.

Peter Wilcock KC described how at times "party politics mattered more to some senior politicians than following the science".

He said the "hurtful and premeditated decision of senior Sinn Féin members of the executive to attend a large-scale funeral gathering at a time when people were being denied that basic and emotive right by executive decisions they had been at the heart of making".

The families' counsel described a message from the chief medical officer to the chief scientific officer in November 2020.

He said the message read: "Disgraceful, they should hang their heads in shame."

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Peter Wilcock KC says that despite a Covid case being confirmed at the end of February, "there followed a number of potential missed opportunities by both the Department of Health and TEO to make any meaningful effort to stand up a civil contingency response to the pandemic until the 14th March."

He said that "even in the midst of the deadliest and longest public health emergency in living memory, some not all, of our politicians behaved in ways which were inevitably and unnecessarily divisive".

He says at times they "lost sight of the fact" that a united response was required to combat a virus which effected everyone equally, no matter what their background.

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Peter Wilcock KC is representing the Northern Ireland Covid Bereaved Families for Justice at the inquiry and he is on his feet now.

He says hearing about WhatsApp messages being deleted is a "sorry revelation" and brings more hurt to those that lost loved ones during the pandemic.

He says "not all evidence of informal communications was retained by important participants in these events as it should have been".