Abstract
In this article, it is argued that the experience of the Covid crisis in Ireland provides a prime example both of the importance of the administrative state in promoting the common good, and of why its vast powers must be carefully channelled. We identify the moderate but important rule of law failures that beset Ireland's successful and largely benign crisis response. We make the case that rule of law principles applied to executive action and regulation of this sort—an internal morality of administrative law—can constrain the administrative state's scope for arbitrariness while also improving its efficacy and perceived legitimacy. We suggest that they can also help to reconcile two critical aspects of public law, thought and practice: the standing need for an empowered and energetic state, and the need for all public power to be reasoned and purposive.