Thread: There's a quote from Minister Simon Harris in Sunday Independent today about coronavirus and the level of knowledge there was about it on February 8. Maybe it was just a figure of speech but an extremely strange one nonetheless. Thanks to @normaburke for the image: 
The reason I find this so strange is that the minister had been extensively briefed on coronavirus in the weeks leading up to February 8. Here's one relating to a memo for the information of government from Jan 29:
Here's another one from January 21 about a "cluster of pneumonia cases caused by a novel coronavirus in Wuhan".
Here's another one from February 5 on the outbreak:
There was another briefing for the minister on February 10, which I suppose is two days after the election, and the content of this quote:
On February 19, I looked for copies of any of these briefings, submissions, memos prepared for Minister Harris relating to COVID-19 from the Department of Health:
I'd actually made a similar request to the HSE on Jan 27. So the idea this wasn't on the radar of journalists at the time simply isn't true. It was, and quite a bit earlier:
The HSE request was refused on the basis that this would not be in the public interest. Release of some records could lead to "misinterpretation and misinformation" and that "the timing of release would not be in the public interest"
The Department of Health request was also refused using Section 29 and Section 30 of the FOI Act. Given we were in the early stages of COVID-19 outbreak in Ireland, I did not appeal this one and withdrew all my other requests to department at this time.
Just as a final note, through @RightToKnowIE - we have reactivated the FOI request seeking copies of all briefings/submissions for Minister Harris in the period up to March 17. We believe that these should be published on a rolling basis with a reasonable time lag allowed ...
... We have also suggested to the Dept of Health that they deal with this request through their press office, or simply by publication to the Department website. This is in line with best practice recommended by the Dept of Public Expenditure on handling FOI requests ...
... during the COVID-19 crisis. You can find that advice here: foi.gov.ie/continuity-of-…
I absolutely give Simon Harris benefit of doubt on this and think his timing is just a bit off given the extraordinary events of the past six weeks here. But the quote in the paper is just misleading and could do with being clarified.
