Only the first lockdown was completely “justifiable”, Ciara Kelly has said. 

The State is finalising the terms of reference to its inquiry into the pandemic and it is expected to take around 18 months to conclude. 

Speaking on Newstalk Breakfast, Ciara said she is “glad” there will be an inquiry but is sceptical that its findings will be especially revelatory. 

“I'm inclined to think of a very good quote from Carl Sagan which says, ‘One of the saddest lessons of history is that if we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. 

“‘We’re no longer interested in finding the truth, the bamboozle has us captured’. 

“I think that could be said about Brexit and I think that could be said about COVID. 

“If you look at Sweden, they looked at how they did during it and they said ‘largely they did well’. 

“I suspect we’re going to say exactly the same thing and I suspect most countries are going to look and say, ‘We did well’ - irrespective of the fact they handled it in different ways.” 

Members of the public wearing face masks on the Luas during the COVID pandemic, 05/01/2022. Image: Leah Farrell / RollingNews.ie

Last year, then-Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the country was was facing a “frightening wave of delayed cancer diagnoses” in the wake of the pandemic. 

It is a phenomena Ciara has previously linked to lockdown; while she feels the first one in March 2020 was “justifiable”, she feels the subsequent ones were “very questionable”.

“I’m not sure we did handle it well,” she said. 

“I actually also think that perhaps now isn’t even the right time to do it because I think time is going to tell. 

“We’ve talked earlier this week on the programme about the fact that we didn’t have any excess deaths during COVID and I think we’ve patted ourselves on the back for that. 

“We’ve had excess deaths since COVID and to me, my fear… is that what we did was we deferred deaths. 

“We locked down, we protected ourselves against COVID but we actually caused harm by our reaction to it and we will pay the price for that going forward.

“That’s my feeling about it.” 

A teenage girl receives a dose of Covid-19 vaccine at a vaccination centre in Barcelona, Spain in December 2021. Picture by: Sipa USA / Alamy Stock Photo

Co-presenter Shane Coleman said he has previously been “sceptical” about the value of inquiries but still favours one on the pandemic taking place. 

“I think, generally, in these situations you kind of know where you went wrong,” he said. 

“On balance, I think it’s important to have it; I think it’s important we don’t get too bogged down in who did what when and at what point and so on. 

“What’s really important is, what we do we want to learn from it?

“I think we need to make sure that our structures are in place if and when there is another [pandemic].” 

Main image: Ciara Kelly in the Newstalk studio. Image: Newstalk