Documents reveal panic within HSE to buy ventilators at start of Covid pandemic

Two years on, the HSE has finally released documents detailing the fiasco around an Irish festival management company’s failed bid to source ventilators from China, writes Cianan Brennan

Whether or not the dispute between the HSE and Roqu will ever be resolved is a matter of conjecture, given it has dragged on for more than two years already

In a way, the saga involving an Irish festival management company and the abortive provision of medical ventilators from China sums up much of the sheer panic which engulfed the HSE, Ireland, and the world at the beginning of Covid-19.

Documents discussing the bizarre transaction in detail have finally been released to the Irish Examiner, nearly two years after the HSE denied their release citing myriad issues — not least that the public interest would not be best served by their publication.