The chair of the new Dáil COVID-19 committee has said its main focus will be on the future.

Clare TD Michael McNamara was appointed chair of the committee when it met for the first time today.

On the Hard Shoulder with Ivan Yates this evening, he said the first priority for members will be coronavirus testing and tracing capacity.

Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan and HSE Chief Executive Paul Reid have both been invited to appear before the committee next week.

He said the group would look to hold the Government to account for the decisions made up to this point, but insisted it will mainly focus its efforts on future plans.

The interior of the Dáil chamber. Photo: Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland

“I think we can’t afford to be preoccupied with past and forget about what is happening now; I think there is a tendency sometimes to do that in politics,” he said.

“Of course, we would also look backwards but I think we can’t set up, as a primary focus, what happened in March.

“I think what happens in May and June is going to be something … you know, we can change the future but we can’t change the past, to borrow a quote from Leo Varadkar, who might have borrowed that quote from Terminator in the first place.”

The Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan arrives for a COVID-19 briefing in the Department of Health, 07-05-2020. Image: Rory Walsh/Newstalk

He said the committee does have powers of compellability; however, he does not expect to have to use them.

"The Chief Medical Officer will be invited to come before the committee and I very much hope that he accepts that invitation," he said.

“A wide number of politicians but also civil servants and people in the private sector will also be invited to come before the committee.

“I accept that we do have a watchdog role but we need to hold the Government to account going forward as well as holding the Government to account for past decisions.”

He said testing and tracing will be key moving forward, noting that “a lot of ambitious targets have been set but it’s not clear that those targets have been met.”

The committee is made up of 19 members and is meeting for the first time today.

It spent today agreeing on a schedule of work that will include questioning some of the top officials and politicians involved in responding to the coronavirus crisis.

Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin each have four members on the committee. There are three independents and the Social Democrats, People Before Profit, Labour and the Green Party each have one member.

Mr McNamara said decisions on what to examine will be made on a majority basis within the committee.