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WELSH nationalists repeated calls for a Wales-specific Covid-19 public inquiry as the Senedd’s own special committee met today for the first time.
The Senedd’s Wales Covid-19 Inquiry special purpose committee took place one week after the UK Covid public inquiry took evidence from witnesses from Wales.
Former Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price sits on the new Senedd committee and said: “Decisions made in Wales should be scrutinised in Wales.
“What we’ve seen and heard from the last week of the UK Covid inquiry has done little to prove otherwise.
“In the mere day and a half given for just five of Wales’s key players to give their evidence, there remain more questions than there have been answers.
“While the remit of the special purpose committee is to look at any gaps identified in the UK Covid inquiry, by definition, it can never complete until after the UK inquiry has concluded. This could be years away.
“It’s not too late for the Welsh government to change their minds and open themselves up to full scrutiny by holding a Welsh-specific Covid inquiry.”
The Senedd committee was put together in an agreement between the Welsh government and the main opposition group, the Welsh Conservatives.
Within three minutes of today’s meeting starting, the members of the committee agreed to exclude the public from proceedings while its members discussed procedural matters.
Both First Minister Mark Drakeford and economy minister Vaughan Gething appeared last week at the UK Covid inquiry during the module looking at pandemic planning.
Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru have been campaigning for a Wales-specific public inquiry and were scathing about last week’s performance by all the witnesses from the Welsh government.
The bereaved families spokeswoman Anna-Louise Marsh-Rees said about Mr Gething: “We have to ask what the role of a health minister is?
“He hadn’t read anything. He hadn’t asked anything. He wasn’t inquisitive. He wasn’t interested. The arrogance was unbelievable.”
Welsh Conservative leader Andrew Davies, also raised Mr Gething’s performance in FMQs, asked whether it was acceptable for a minister to fail to read papers in their ministerial brief.
Mr Drakeford said that it was not appropriate to provide a running commentary on the Covid-19 inquiry.
