'Extreme urgency' saw HSE rush to buy sanitiser without tender process

File image. Picture: Pexels

The HSE has said the “extreme urgency arising from the pandemic" led to it paying more than €9.1m to the company that supplied it with millions of bottles of potentially dangerous hand sanitiser without a formal tender process.

It purchased more than 3m units of Virapro, the hand sanitiser now at the centre of a major recall after it was found to contain methanol — an ingredient believed to be toxic in such products.