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The leaking of information from executive meetings during the Covid pandemic was “tolerated rather than challenged,” Robin Swann has said.<\/b><\/p>\n
The health minister is giving evidence at the UK Covid inquiry during its final week of hearings in Belfast.<\/p>\n
The inquiry has already heard from other ministers who expressed annoyance about leaks to the media. <\/p>\n
Mr Swann said it was frustrating that information was often leaked “in real time” to the media.<\/p>\n
He said he often felt it was a “deliberate” attempt to condition how the conversation about restrictions would go when the executive met.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
He added there were various attempts to stop the leaking of information, which became “so endemic that it became tolerated rather than challenged”.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n