The Government is set to sign off a new public health group today.

It is understood Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly took a list of names to government leaders last night, some of which were previously members of the National Public Health Emergency Team (nphet).

There is no formal memo to government. However senior sources have confirmed that the people involved were “getting the nod” last night, with one or two names still under discussion.

The leaders will be signing off on a new group, with a new structure to nphet, which was wound down last month.

The new group is to be “totally different” to the public health advisory team and will not meet in a same way nphet did as the government views the public health emergency as mostly over.

It’s understood there is likely to be monthly meetings and the group would not necessarily be making recommendations to government.

The group will also have broader expertise, with some of those chosen with specialities in new medical technologies or medicines and will be called on to set out a much more medium to long term health plan.

The current wave of Covid-19 will still be managed by the office of the chief medical officer, and the vaccine rollout will continue to be managed through the National Immunisation Advisory Committee.

“This is not a new nphet or anything like it, it won’t have the same power,” a government source confirmed.

“It’s a forward planning group, who will be looking ahead, and won’t be advising on restrictions or anything like that.”