Former education minister Lord Peter Weir says he regrets the debate over closing schools in Northern Ireland at the onset of the Covid pandemic created division. Lord Weir appeared before the UK Covid-19 public inquiry sitting in Belfast on Wednesday.

Sinn Féin ministers acted with “one eye towards” Dublin when considering whether schools in Northern Ireland should close in the early months of the Covid pandemic, Lord Peter Weir has said.A barrister for the UK Covid-19 Inquiry asked the former DUP education minister how “well served children in Northern Ireland were” when the decision over whether to close schools had become “a political and divisive issue”.

SF ministers had ‘one eye towards’ Dublin over Covid schools closure – Weir - Lord Weir told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry he ‘regretted’ that discussions had become politicised.