HSE chief to 'look at' appearance at same conference as Roqu chief

HSE CEO Paul Reid said he will examine his diary commitments ahead of the conference. Picture: Leon Farrel / Photocall Ireland

The head of the HSE has said he will “look at” the fact he is due to speak at a health conference next week along with the CEO of a company which was paid €10m by the HSE for ventilators that were never used.

Asked at the HSE’s weekly Covid-19 briefing whether he thought it was appropriate to address the same event as Robert Quirk, chief executive of the Roqu Group, Paul Reid said he has “a number of commitments in the diary, I tend to live for tomorrow’s commitments”.

“I’m sure that commitment is in the diary, and I’ll be looking at that as well and engaging with the organisers,” he said.

“To be frank, I haven’t looked much further ahead into early next week in terms of commitments. But I will and I always do, I will look at the schedule of attendants and what kind of panels I’m on. I will look at that."

Both Mr Reid and Health Minister Stephen Donnelly are due to address the National Health Summit on February 10, a virtual conference organised by Business Post Events. 

Other prospective attendees include Professor Gabriel Scally and RTÉ broadcaster Audrey Carville.

Roqu’s digital Covid-19 passport venture, Health Passport Europe, is also listed as a ‘gold’ sponsor of the event, for which tickets cost €125.

Business Post Events did not respond to a request for comment.

A spokesperson for Mr Donnelly, meanwhile, said that the conference “is an important opportunity for discussion about the challenges facing our healthcare system”.

“It also offers an opportunity to speak about the ongoing implementation of Sláintecare,” they said.

They did not elaborate on whether or not it would be appropriate for the minister to share a stage with a company which is in discussion with the HSE over contractual obligations.

Mr Quirke is due to give a 10-minute address regarding Health Passport Europe, and to participate in a panel discussion entitled Getting back to life after Covid-19.

In March 2020, as global pressure for the acquisition of ventilator capacity intensified, Mr Quirke offered the services of Roqu Media International, a company he founded with experience of managing music festivals in the Middle East, to procure 1,000 such devices from China at a cost of €35m.

The HSE paid Roqu €14.1m, and received a refund of €3.8m after 72 devices were delivered, by the end of April. The delivered ventilators did not pass minimum quality standards and were never clinically deployed.

Mr Reid has previously said that the HSE is “in detailed discussions with Roqu regarding contractual obligations”.