Michelle O’Neill u-turn over Bobby Storey funeral apology during questioning at Covid inquiry

Texts between First and deputy First Minister shown at inquiry

Responding to questioning from Clair Dobbin KC at the inquiry, Michelle O’Neill – who was deputy First Minister during the Covid-19 pandemic – was asked whether she believed she and the ministers of Northern Ireland provided the people of Northern Ireland with the leadership they deserved during the pandemic, Michelle O’Neill said: “Yes, we did.”
When asked whether she provided that leadership, Michelle O’Neill said: “Yes, I did.”
Text messages between Baroness Arlene Foster, then-First Minister, and Ms O’Neill were shown, in which Baroness Foster accused Ms O’Neill of undermining Health Minister Robin Swann.

The texts 

[21/03/2020, 20:32:42] Arlene: I think you public undermining of Robin (after Peter on Yesterday) today
was totally uncalled for. If you want to effect change in a policy you are going completely the wrong way
about it. You are playing politics when things are much too serious. It is hugely disappointing but
unfortunately I’m not surprised.
[21/03/2020, 20:56:35] Michelle O’Neill: It’s too serious to tolerate incompetence. Things are too slow.
Lives will be lost. Start listening.
[21/03/2020, 20:57:50] Arlene: I hope you are not calling two of your ministerial colleagues incompetent.
Naomi and Robin have both raised concerns about your behaviour. You need to be more collegiate.
[21/03/2020, 21:05:46] Michelle O’Neill: The department is not serving Robin well. We are not being
served well by the civil service. This is a time to knock heads and to get them to act with haste. Our
nurses are crying out for help to do their jobs. I spoke to many from the western trust area over this week
and they need us to fight for them.

Ms Dobbin said these showed “in embryonic form” a number of issues which played out during the pandemic. 
Ms O’Neill said she thought most governments would have been experiencing similar issues. 
She refuted a question on whether she “played politics” with issues during the Covid-19 pandemic – and said “consensus was not forthcoming” between political leaders.
On the texts, she said: “It was a conversation that was not supposed to be played out in public.
“Arlene and I probably agreed on quite a lot of things – this demonstrates one exchange at one point in time.”