Michelle Mone PPE scandal

This is not really not a comparable situation, if you look at more reputable sources than articles based off twitter threads.

This company reportedly did go through the proper procurement process, and the HSE did highlight during the process that there were significant risks but given the crisis at the time it was worth going forward, as this was one of a number of contracts going through in parallel to try to get the desperately required equipment ASAP.

Ventilators were delivered but were not up to the required standard. The HSE have since received a partial refund and continue to be in dispute with the company. There is zero indication that the HSE were not acting in good faith or that there was anyone connected to the company in government. The 14 million (a chunk of which has since been returned) is also a pretty tiny drop in the ocean compared to the billions the Tories put into their cronies' pockets during the pandemic.

The same excuses don't apply though. In one case a company with zero connections to anyone in government or anyone in the procurement process went through proper procedures - the HSE acknowledged and highlighted the risks but given the exceptional circumstances at the beginning of the pandemic they went ahead. It didn't work out and they have been trying to recover the money since, and have successfully recovered about 30% of it.

In the other case someone who is a member of the party of government, who sits in an undemocratically elected chamber for life where they were put by that party, used her connections to completely bypass any and all standard procurement procedures and to pocket a significant amount of public money for the company run by her husband - a company that didn't even exist yet at the time she lobbied the government for the contract. The company provided zero usable PPE in return for over 200 million pounds and the couple themselves made off with around 60 million in personal profit.

Sometimes things go wrong or don't work out and public money is lost. In some cases the cause is blatant corruption, and in some cases it isn't. There's a clear difference between the two, and there's a particularly clear distinction between this being a consistent pattern of corrupt behaviour from the Tory government, while there is very little evidence that there is anything close to that kind of situation here.

Also the comparison to Jennifer Carroll MacNeill is utterly ridiculous - that is a well established publicly traded company that has been around for years, that went through standard procurement processes and already had active work with the HSE since long before she was a TD. Additionally, neither Jennifer Carroll MacNeill or her most direct family had any stake in the company or any role in the procurement process. Are you suggesting that any company in the country must be disqualified from carrying out its standard business should anyone who happens to be in any way related to anyone on the board run for election?

Ventilators were purchased from China by a Middle Eastern based events management Roqu Media International company for the HSE.

They never went into service because AFAIK they were dangerous.

14.1 million wasted.

Now who thought it was a good idea to use an events management company with absolutely no track record in the industry to source highly technical medical equipment?

And why have those responsible for such a decision never been brought to book for it?

And who exactly is Westmeath native Robert Quirke owner of said company?

I wonder I wonder who he is mates with.🙄

All that says is that there was no political involvement in the decision.

BTW you do know you can have bribery and corruption without the involvement of politicians.

It does not give any reason why a company with no track record, no qualified personnel was contracted to procure highly technical pieces of medical equipment from an unproven source.

It is just waffle about lack of supplies.

Does that mean you look around and say look there is an events management company who can supply us with kit we know nothing about. Yeah lets appoint them and give them a 14million contract.

It still doesn't explain who approved this supplier, who signed off on the amount and what if any due diligence was carried out on the supplier and the equipment.

Not not thinking of any politician, but HSE/Dept of Health.

Remember scandal about a medical supplier and the kick backs they were giving out to purchasing depts.

Due to covid lots of stuff could have been pushed through quickly without ever reaching minister or dept of health.

But someone somewhere signed off on this even though it looked dodgy as sh** from the off.

It would be like Dublin bus needing new buses in a rush and some lad in there doing a deal with a lad that had a company running company days out to provide buses from some unknown company in China.