HSE paid cash up-front for ventilators that were never used

There was a huge demand for ventilators from health services across the world as a key treatment for the most vulnerable Covid-19 patients. File Picture.

A multimillion-euro deal to bring medical ventilators into Ireland saw the HSE pay cash up front a month in advance to a company with no trading history.

The HSE paid Roqu Media International Limited, a Dublin-based company with a history of managing festivals in countries such as Saudi Arabia and Bulgaria, €14.1 million for the supply of intensive care Boaray and Eternity ventilators "on or about March 23" of this year as Ireland faced into its first lockdown.