Tony O’Brien: Let’s trust the people and set up a citizens’ assembly on health reform

The pandemic emergency may be over but we have had a health crisis for decades and the appropriate legacy of Covid-19 would be to resolve this once and for all

‘Before the pandemic, our day-to-day health service was struggling to meet the needs of the population, and that has not changed because of Covid-19 — indeed, the problem has only been exacerbated’

We have been told that we are now entering the “phase of personal responsibility” in our response to Covid-19. On one level, that’s the welcome signal that the state is withdrawing from its interventionist role during the emergency phase of the pandemic. It is appropriate and necessary that it does so.

On another, it is a deeply patronising message which could be taken to imply that we haven’t all been up to our collective necks ...