With its secrecy stripped away, the rottenness of the Stormont system is being exposed

Civil servants who wiped phones and altered minutes to conceal key facts are now more likely to be promoted rather than disciplined

The Covid inquiry has been ongoing this week

Sam McBride

After just four hearings of the Covid Inquiry in Belfast, already layer after layer of Stormont’s deep secrecy has been penetrated. The revelations are dismaying. As death swept towards us, ministers fought.

As health staff risked their lives to treat Covid patients, just one civil servant out of 23,000 volunteered to sit in an emergency hub to coordinate the crisis response.