[9] The first known case of COVID-19 in a resident of the Republic of Ireland was confirmed in the county of Dublin on 29 February 2020, in a secondary school student who had returned from an affected area in Northern Italy.
[12][13] The team was obliged to operate with an unusual degree of autonomy during the initial months of the pandemic, as the recent general election in February 2020 had left the outgoing government in only a caretaker role.
[8] In addition, before each meeting, Holohan gave its agenda to the Minister for Health in a call and queried if the government had anything specific they wish to have discussed.
[18] NPHET used press briefings to communicate updates, guidelines, statistics and policy changes to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic in Ireland.
[32] It was chaired by Tracey Conroy, Assistant Secretary, Acute Hospitals Policy Division at the Department of Health.
The subgroup provided assurance to NPHET on coordination of surge evidence synthesis capacity to support the development of guidance.
[37][38] Following speculation that NPHET would be disbanded from mid-October 2021,[39] Taoiseach Micheál Martin confirmed that the team would cease to exist as a separate body over time and that their role and the COVID-19 vaccination taskforce would be transitioned into the normal functions of the Department of Health and the HSE, after the Government published a plan for easing most COVID-19 restrictions by 22 October.
[40] As a result of rising COVID-19 cases due to a fifth wave of COVID-19 caused by the Omicron variant, and after almost all restrictions were eased eventually in early January 2022, there were no plans for NPHET to be disbanded.
[41] On 17 February 2022, Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan proposed in a letter to the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly that the NPHET be disbanded and replaced with a smaller monitoring group.