Hearings

• Preliminary Hearings

  • February 28th 23’ – Ronan Lavery, Counsel for the Northern Ireland Bereaved Families for Justice, opened raising concerns around rule 10 requests for permission of questioning. Lavery explained the unique perspective Northern Ireland has, due to the combined health and social care model and the weak healthcare system in Northern Ireland that was there even before the pandemic.

  • September 27th 23’ – Maire-Claire McDermott, Counsel for the Northern Ireland Bereaved Families for Justice, extended the thoughts of the bereaved families to the Counsel to the Inquiry. This included the belief of many of the families that their loved ones got Covid-19 because nothing was done to prevent it in the healthcare system. Ms McDermott closed by stating the healthcare system in Northern Ireland was neglected prior to the pandemic which was the cause for its catastrophic failure.

  • April 10th 24’ – Jacob Bindman, Counsel for the Northern Ireland Bereaved Families for Justice, set the scene of the unique and integrated healthcare system in Northern Ireland. He followed this by voicing the wishes of the bereaved, that there would be a forensic examination as to how each health and social care trust responded to the pandemic. He reinstated our request for more information from the chief executives of the five health trusts, including the level of communication and the efficiency of their relationships. He finished by exemplifying our reasoning for more examination into the Northern Irish health and social care trusts and the spotlighting hospitals.