Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill has said there is no evidence to suggest there was a fall in compliance with Covid restrictions after Bobby Storey’s funeral.
Former Northern Ireland first minister Arlene Foster told the Covid-19 inquiry in Belfast there was a fall in compliance after Sinn Féin ministers, including Ms O’Neill, attended the large-scale funeral for the senior republican in West Belfast in June 2020, when there were restrictions on social gatherings.
The former DUP leader made the statement on Wednesday as it examined Stormont decisions made on test, trace and isolation.
“I don’t think that we were slow to promote compliance because day after day at press conferences we were urging the public to comply,” Ms Foster said.
Investigation: The links between lawyers in Ireland and Putin’s soft-power agency
Camogie Association Special Congress: All you need to know
‘I like the underdog thing’: Meghann Fahy’s rise from underestimated actor to Netflix’s Sirens star
Emigration: ‘From a distance, I have relearned how to be Irish, and how to value the places I didn’t appreciate’
“There was a breakdown in compliance after the attendance of senior members of Sinn Féin at a high-ranking republican funeral at the end of June, which caused severe difficulties in Northern Ireland with compliance and adherence.”
She said that despite efforts made, including working with the PSNI and giving money to councils to employ Covid marshals, there was “a difficulty which still hung over the Executive” around noncompliance because of the Storey funeral.
Asked about Ms Foster’s comments, Ms O’Neill told the inquiry: “I think, unfortunately, I believe Arlene Foster raised that issue again today in the inquiry because the comments are politically motivated.
“I don’t believe there is any evidence that suggests that actually is the case.”
Ms O’Neill apologised for attending the funeral at the Covid inquiry in 2024.
Earlier on Wednesday, Ms Foster said it was “inhumane” that people had to die alone during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The former DUP leader said if she could change one thing from that period, it would be that families should have been allowed to make their own informed decisions on being with their dying loved ones.
Asked about whether black, Asian and minority ethnic groups suffered as a result of pre-existing inequalities, Ms Foster said this was true “of a number of different groups”.
Ms Foster and Ms O’Neill were also asked about the decision to end contact tracing on March 12th, 2020.
Ms Foster said the decision was made after a Cobra meeting on March 12th, at which she, Ms O’Neill and health minister Robin Swann had little opportunity to engage and were “in receive mode”.
NI chief medical officer Michael McBride told the inquiry that capacity issues were behind the decision to stop community testing and that the ending of contact tracing was a “second order” as a result of that.
Ms O’Neill said she had raised concerns about ending contact tracing in March, as it went against the advice of the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Notes by Ms O’Neill, who was then the deputy first minister, were read out from a meeting on March 16th where she wrote “GB approach nightmare compared to rest of world”.
She told the inquiry it was “absolutely” a decision by the department of health to stop contact tracing in mid-March.
Ms O’Neill was asked by inquiry chairwoman Baroness Heather Hallett whether she was not listened to because of deep political divides in Northern Ireland.
“The fact that we live on an island, the fact that we were one single epidemiological unit, that wasn’t factored into decision-making.
“That’s not a political point, that’s just a logical point. I didn’t feel like that was being taken on board.
“I think perhaps that, at times, could be seen as I wanted to follow everything in the south. I didn’t. I wanted to follow everything that worked, and I didn’t mind where it came from, as long as it worked for the people that we represented.”
