Covid hearing: Bereaved daughter questions politicians' humanity

Katrina Daly with her father, Peter Clarke, in 2008

A woman whose father died during the Covid pandemic has said she believes politicians are "lacking any humanity".

Katrina Daly, from County Armagh, was speaking as the second round of Covid inquiry public hearings continues.

Earlier this week a former head of NHS England told the inquiry that the then-health secretary, Matt Hancock, wanted to decide "who should live and die" if the NHS was overwhelmed.

Ms Daly said the revelation did not surprise her.

"These people… they're our politicians - but they seem to be lacking any humanity at all," she said.

"I mean he [Mr Hancock] was on an absolute power trip. He was going to decide who lived and who died. What was his medical background and qualifications? Absolutely zero.

"For me personally, the system from the top down, it's broken," he added.

• Covid inquiry: What is it investigating and how does it work?

Katrina's father, Peter Clarke, was 70 when he died in December 2021, during the pandemic.

His family initially thought he had bronchitis, which Katrina says he developed every year.

"On December 21 [2021], we were allowed in [to hospital] to see daddy for 27 minutes. And on December 23, we were allowed to see dad for 11 minutes.

"On the 23rd December, dad's ventilator was turned off."

'We are stuck now'

The 44-year-old - who's from Crossmaglen - said she feels like "we are stuck now".

"I lost my husband 10 years ago at Christmas time. He was given all the [funeral] rituals without restrictions and that helps - it gives closure," she said.

"We had very little of that for my dad. And some families had none."

Peter Clarke (right) with his wife, Kathleen, his daughter, Katrina Daly, her daughter, Ariana, and her sons, Liam, Darragh, Peter and Oran

She was renovating her kitchen along with her father when he became ill.

"It's just one wee plinth [in the kitchen] that he had to finish, to put that on.

"I have not had the heart to put that on since.

"There's so many times when you think he is going to walk in through the door."

Societal change

She said she hopes that the Covid inquiry - which she has been following avidly - will bring about a change in governance and society.

She also hopes that people who have not been impacted by Covid will pay attention to to the evidence being heard during the inquiry's hearings.

"I think it's very easy if you have not been affected by it, that you are thinking, 'not this again'," she said.

Of the inquiry itself, she ultimately hopes for societal change.

"I hope that life is respected and people's choices are respected. That seems to be lost somewhere along the line.

"I don't care whether you are Labour or Tory, but that life is respected.

"And a societal change too. Life is so fast now," she added.