Sinn Féin spokesperson on Public Expenditure and Reform, Mairéad Farrell TD, has called on the Government to clarify the procurement process for ventilators, following media reports that the HSE paid a firm €14.1m for ventilators that remain unused.

Teachta Farrell said:

“Media reports that the HSE paid an Irish firm €14.1m for ventilators that remain unused due to quality issues are very concerning.

“The company involved in the procurement allegedly did not have experience in procuring medical products and its operations prior to the pandemic had been focused on managing musical festivals in the Middle East.

“These claims are highly alarming and raise many serious questions about how the procurement process was managed.

“The sums of public money involved here are huge and the Government has a duty to ensure public money is not mishandled or misspent in any way.

“The Government now must urgently clarify what has happened here, how the procurement process was handled and on what basis this public money was spent.”