Covid Inquiry: 'now bloody well get on and do it' and sort out the issues highlighted, final hearing is told

Stormont politicians were urged today (Thursday) to "bloody well get on and do it" by fixing issues highlighted by the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.

Brenda Campbell KC, acting for Bereaved Families for Justice NI, was speaking on the final day of the UK Covid Inquiry sitting in Belfast.

Sue Gray (main pic), former Permanent Secretary at NI's Department of Finance, at the outset of the pandemic, was the last witness to give evidence in hearings which lasted three weeks.

Meanwhile, Ms Campbell told the inquiry that it had been "very difficult" for the bereaved.

Making her closing submissions, Ms Campbell said the last three weeks have been "littered with oversights, omissions and feelings".

She described "devastating evidence" exposing a "dysfunctional system".

For Covid-19 bereaved families, she said every omission, oversight or failure "represents a fork in the road" and a "missed opportunity that had it not been made, might mean the person they loved and lost would still be here".

Ms Campbell referred to the attendance of former deputy first minister Michelle O'Neill and Sinn Fein ministers at a large-scale funeral for senior republican Bobby Storey despite lockdown restrictions in June 2020 as "breathtakingly insensitive", causing "hurt, anger and outraged" to bereaved.

She also criticised the "deliberate and orchestrated deployment of a cross-community vote" by the DUP over Covid-19 restrictions in autumn 2020, quoting Justice Minister Naomi Long's assessment of it as an "egregious abuse of power".

Ms Campbell said while the findings of the inquiry have not been delivered yet, administrative and political leaders can address issues now.

She concluded: "Many gaps have been exposed, promises to learn lessons have been made from the witness box. There is a great deal of work to be done by those who represent us.

"In the words of the late Mo Mowlam, the message from the Northern Ireland Bereaved to those who represent us is now 'bloody well get on and do it'".

Earlier, the last witness to be called, Sue Gray, former Permanent Secretary to NI's Department of Finance, said using an independent adviser to investigate leaks from ministerial meetings can prove "fruitful".

Ms Gray was asked to conduct an internal probe into leaks at Stormont during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Covid-19 Inquiry has heard the endeavour failed to identity the source or sources of the leaks.

The ex-senior civil servant, who is now chief of staff to Labour Party leader, Sir Keir Starmer, compared the approach within central government where, she said, the independent adviser on ministers' interests would often be asked to take on such investigations.

She said she was not aware of a similar mechanism at Stormont.

"When I was here, I was asked to conduct a leak investigation," she said.

"I think it related to some messages from somebody's phone which, I think, a journalist, I can't remember the exact detail, had recovered or had seen those messages.

"You know, what you can do is you can obviously, if it's an official phone, you can check the official phone records to see if calls were made, or around that time you can also check any messages that they've also sent. But obviously on a personal phone you don't have that opportunity. And I think on the investigation we did, we used all of our internal resources to try to identify what had happened. But I think that sometimes an independent investigation, actually just the nature of an independent investigation, can be fruitful."

Ms Gray said people who want to leak will invariably find a way to do it.

However, she said certain processes could be used, such as banning phones from confidential ministerial meetings, to limit the opportunities to leak. She said establishing a culture where leaking is not tolerated was also important. She said that culture should be set by the parties' leadership, including their ministers.

The inquiry has heard how discussions at several high-pressured Executive meetings during the pandemic were effectively live-tweeted by journalists who were being leaked the information in real time.

Ms Gray was asked what the reaction would be if something similar unfolded at a Cabinet meeting in London.

"I think that would be a terrible thing and it would be seen for that," she said.

Inquiry chairwoman Baroness Hallett made clear her focus on the practice of leaking during the pandemic was not related to "legitimate whistle-blowers", rather leaks for "political advantage".

In her closing statement, Monye Anyadike-Danes KC, representing the Commissioner for Older People for Northern Ireland (COPNI) Eddie Lynch, said the treatment of vulnerable older people in the pandemic would be a source of "lasting shame".

"The whole of Northern Ireland now knows the extent to which older people and others who are in those protected categories were particularly adversely impacted by the Government's response to the pandemic," she said.

"And no matter how many times the numbers of them who suffered and died of Covid is stated, it still has the capacity to shock, and so it should - it will remain a lasting shame."

She added: "The commissioner (Mr Lynch) was hoping that there would be answers and an understanding of how and why vulnerable older people were so badly failed by the Northern Ireland Government's response to the pandemic.

"Regrettably, the answer to the 'how' question is far more deeply depressing and concerning than he thought possible, whilst the answer to the 'why' question is not really there.

"In his view, it needs to be, not least to build the public's trust and confidence in the Government's ability to adequately respond to the next pandemic so that lives are protected.

"The evidence heard has done little to start that process, but it must happen, because without such trust and confidence, the public may not respond with the necessary compliance to whatever measures are considered necessary in the future. And that will be to the detriment of everyone."