Ministers in North did not seriously consider school closures until Republic did so, Covid inquiry told

Sinn Féin Assembly member Carál Ní Chuilín, former minister for communities in Northern Ireland, apologised for attending the funeral of senior republican Bobby Storey in Belfast in June 2020 when strict Covid-19 restrictions were in place. Photograph: Steven McCaffery/PA WireThis and other key decisions became “political and divisive” issues, with ministers at the time split over whether to follow Dublin or London’s lead according to their own national identity.

Asked by the lead counsel for the inquiry, Clair Dobbin KC, why the position in Northern Ireland was different from that in the Republic, he said: “I don’t think they gave us particular clarity”, and there was “probably a limited amount of direct understanding” as to why schools in the Republic had closed.

Ministers should “not be out shouting”, the then DUP first minister Arlene Foster was recorded as saying. The former minister added that he also “suspected” there may have been a “particular level of antipathy” from those ministers towards the UK’s Conservative government, led by Boris Johnson.

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