Supplier of unused ventilators also lobbied HSE on 'Covid passports'

Robert Quirke, president and CEO of Roqu Group, at the pilot launch of Health Passport Ireland.

A company which imported ventilators for the HSE from China, which were never used, also lobbied the executive repeatedly as to its interest in a further initiative involving a digital Covid passport.

Roqu Group, a company incorporated in May 2020, made repeated overtures towards senior HSE staff as to their interest in a project, originally known as Health Passport Ireland, from last summer.

The company is separately in “continuing discussions” with the HSE regarding a deal which saw it paid an initial €14.1m in March 2020 for the procurement of ventilators from China which were never clinically deployed.

Roqu processed that transaction under another of its company names  — Roqu Media International, whose prominent area of expertise was the management of music festivals in the Middle East — and has since claimed there is “no dispute” between itself and the HSE.

Meanwhile, records dating from between July and October 2020 released under Freedom of Information, show that Roqu’s owner and CEO, Robert Quirke, contacted the HSE’s director of digital transformation Martin Curley in late July to pitch the idea of an app, Health Passport Ireland, as a “digital mobile solution” to the issue of travel during Covid-19.

He said that Roqu “works successfully with many international governments and state bodies to deliver projects of national importance”.

“It is an honour to be of service to the State at this time and thank you,” he said, adding that Health Passport Ireland, which has since been rebranded as Health Passport Europe, would be launching trials in August.

Mr Curley replied that the HSE would “potentially be interested to participate in a pilot”.

The following month, Mr Curley asked Mr Quirke to “consider” delaying the launch of the app, adding that “there is growing interest amongst the clinical team in the HSE, but also concerns”.

It is unclear whether or not the HSE ever came officially on board with Health Passport Ireland. In response to queries from the Irish Examiner last month, a spokesperson said that Roqu was no longer providing services to the HSE.

However, in response to a further specific query for this story as to whether or not the HSE has had any official dealings with Roqu since last April, a spokesperson said: “The HSE is not in a position to provide any further comment at this stage.”

In late September, Mr Curley suggested to Mr Quirke that they use a HSE digital academy forum in October to “maybe showcase the digital health passport” along with a rapid antigen test which Mr Quirke had also been lobbying for.

This was in response to a suggestion from Mr Quirke of a “potential pilot in Dublin Airport” for the test. “Many airports in Europe are already at this stage,” he said.

Footage remains online of Mr Curley and Mr Quirke discussing both the test and the passport at the aforementioned digital forum on October 5, while the pair released a joint press release regarding the event, which Mr Curley described as “a great step towards providing a solution to support the national response to the pandemic”.

Later in October, Mr Curley asked Mr Quirke specifically as to the location of his laboratory processing Covid swabs, and as to whether or not the health passport had been “stress-tested”. It is unclear if these queries were answered.