The leaking of information from executive meetings during the Covid pandemic was “tolerated rather than challenged,” Robin Swann has said.

The health minister is giving evidence at the UK Covid inquiry during its final week of hearings in Belfast.

The inquiry has already heard from other ministers who expressed annoyance about leaks to the media.

Mr Swann said it was frustrating that information was often leaked “in real time” to the media.

He said he often felt it was a “deliberate” attempt to condition how the conversation about restrictions would go when the executive met.

He told the inquiry papers were often shared late with executive colleagues and would be leaked to the media, allowing a “narrative” to be established.

He added there were various attempts to stop the leaking of information, which became “so endemic that it became tolerated rather than challenged”.

“At times there was a live feed from the meetings, which left it extremely challenging at times for ministers to be open”, Mr Swann said.